Major Santa Cruz County route re-opens for drivers

County leaders and residents came together Monday for a ribbon cutting in Soquel to celebrate the reopening of a major alternate route to Highway 17 which has been closed for months following winter storms.

“I really missed this road,” said Bruce Steydint, who lives nearby. “It’s like an old friend has finally come back again.”

The closure of Soquel-San Jose Road in February created a huge headache for folks who live on the mountain road. It also affected several businesses in the area and schools “because (school) staff and some students were on the other side of the closure so bringing them back together will play a big role in maintaining the community,” said Santa Cruz County Supervisor John Leopold.

Soquel-San Jose Road is also a popular alternate route for drivers who want to avoid busy Highway 17 that connects Santa Cruz to Silicon Valley.

“I have a pet-sitting businesses so I don’t have to go way out of my way on 17 which terrifies me. I hate it,” said Deb Arneson, who lives nearby.

The reopening of the road comes as great news for folks at the Summit Store which is about 7 miles from where Soquel-San Jose Road washed away. Ben Abeln, one of the store’s managers, says the shop didn’t see huge losses this winter but he certainly felt cut off.

“It was unnerving, having three kids and if something were to had happened during one of these rainstorms where Highway 17 is closed and one of my kids got hurt, I would have to airlift them out,” said Abeln. “I felt trapped for the first time on this mountain.”

During construction, crews put in a drainage system and then back-filled it. The fix, however, is just temporary.

“We will have this temporary fix in place probably for a year, year and a half, until we get plans approved for a permanent bridge that will go over this spot,” said Supervisor Leopold.

The temporary fix was paid for by the county without help from the federal government. The county is still dealing with at least $114 million in damages to roughly 230 different roads.