Santa Cruz County pushes forward with storm damage repairs

UPDATE 3/20/2018 6:10 p.m.: It’s been one year since a federal disaster declaration was given to Santa Cruz County after a winter season full of damaging rain storms.

County officials says they say some of the worst storm damage in history last year. They’ve completed more than $20 million in debris removal and road repairs and several priority projects.

Valencia Road at Trout Gulch is one of about 200 so-called “damage points in Santa Cruz County, roadways that suffered major destruction in the 2016-2017 winter season. Louis Towley, who lives in nearby Rolling Green Estates, remembers the toll it took.

“When the road first kind of collapsed and it was How are we going to get around?’ and then they completely closed it off,” Towley recalled. “They closed the pedestrian part and we had to do the long loop up Valencia and that added 20 minutes on a round trip. For a lot of families, driving into town for multiple school trips and go to the grocery (store), that was an extra hour, two hours a day on a typical day. Not to mention the anxiety of if the road was going to close up further which it did a couple of times and we couldn’t leave.”

While Valencia Road was the county’s largest repair projects, others were also completed: Soquel-San Jose Road, Glenwood Drive, Laurel Glen and Soquel Drive at Aptos Street.

“We’ve cleared a number of projects that were preventing people from getting to their homes or if people were cut off from their neighborhood, that was our first priority,” said Jason Hoppin, public information officer for Santa Cruz County. “We did the bigger roads, the bigger projects as our next priority and we knocked out a number of those. Beyond that we’re just going to end up just having to go around to all the corners of the county and fixing all the little wash outs that we’ve had occur.”

Work will soon begin at other sites like Vine Hill Road, Branciforte Drive and Jameson Creek Road. All the projects are being paid for with federal (FEMA and the Federal Highway Administration), state (SB1 – the Road Repair and Accountability Act) and county funds. All of the storm repairs are expected to be completed in about four years.

“Some of the worst storm damage in history here in Santa Cruz County and it’s a big impact on a little community like ours and these dollars have been very helpful to getting us back on track,” Hoppin said.

With these ongoing repairs, crews aren’t taking changes with this week’s rain. Several projects that are still under construction are being protected with sand bags holding down tarps to protect the ground from rain.

Louis said he’s not worried about the weather.

“They seem to have gotten to a point now where everything is stabilized,” Towley said. “We’ve had a couple of moderate rains and the crews are really good about covering the parts that are susceptible to any kind of a washout.”

ORIGINAL POST: One year after a disaster was declared for winter storms, Santa Cruz County officials announce the completion of more than $20 million in debris removal and road repairs, including several priority projects.

“By adopting repair guidelines and hiring additional staff to work on obtaining quick project approvals, the Board of Supervisors has prioritized and expedited the storm recovery process,” Board Chair Zach Friend said. “We still have a long road ahead of us, but we have come a long way since last winter.”

With approximately $120 million in damage to more than 200 different sites, the 2016-17 winter storms caused more damage to public infrastructure than any storm in history. The Federal Emergency Management Agency eventually declared three major storm disasters for Santa Cruz County, with the Jan. 18-23 storm event impacting major routes across the county.

County officials estimate it will take several years to repair all storm-related projects. Earlier this month, the Department of Public Works announced pre-construction work at several more repair sites, including Vine Hill Road, Branciforte Drive, Eureka Canyon Road and more.

KION’s Mariana Hicks will have more at 5 and 6: http://bit.ly/2HQX0jE