A new engineering assessment of Encinitas’s 46 bridges has found that one along Coast Highway 101 over the inlet to San Elijo Lagoon is in “poor” condition, but city officials say renovation plans already are being considered.
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However, it could be about five years before any construction activity actually starts.
“This is an arduous process,” city Engineering Department Director Dan Nutter said during Wednesday’s City Council meeting. “It is going to take us some time.”
That’s because Encinitas needs to work with the state Department of Transportation to determine the scope of the construction project, he said. The big issue is what constitutes “repair” and what is considered “betterment,” or improvements to the structure, Nutter and others said.
Repairs will be covered by grant money, which Encinitas has heard it will receive, plus about $3.5 million in city matching money.
Any major improvements — say widening the narrow pedestrian walkway — will fall in the improvement category and Encinitas will need to pay the full cost of that, Nutter said.
Council member Joy Lyndes, who represents the Cardiff region that includes the bridge, said there’s no doubt that area residents will want “betterments” to the bridge, given how many pedestrians and cyclists cross it daily. And, it’s well worth doing any proposed improvements in conjunction with the anticipated repair work, she said, adding, “We’re probably never going to have a better opportunity.”
The concrete bridge, which is just south of the San Elijo State Beach campground, has two vehicle lanes in each direction, plus a protected bike lane in each direction and pedestrian walkways on each edge. The western pedestrian walkway, which is the one with the ocean views, is more popular with walkers, but less wide than the east side one.
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The bridge was originally built in 1934; widened in 1953; and repaired multiple times in recent years, a June 2023 city staff report states. Its “poor” condition status makes it eligible for a Federal Highway Administration funding program.
While the new engineering report found that the bridge is “showing signs of deterioration,” including spots with chipped concrete and rusting rebar, “poor doesn’t mean unsafe” — it just means the bridge needs repair work, engineer Kelly Burnell with Kleinfelder, Inc., told the council.
In January, the council awarded a $270,000 contract to Kleinfelder, Inc., to evaluate the city’s 46 bridges and develop a 10-year plan for repairing them. The consulting company assessed nine conventional bridges, 11 culvert bridge structures and 26 pedestrian-only structures.
“Basic, non-destructive investigation methods were used, including sounding of concrete using hammers, probing of timber members to determine competent depths, and measuring of noted cracks, delaminations or other defects,” the consultants’ report states.
Only one other bridge structure was found to be in poor condition. It’s a pedestrian bridge over a drainage swale at Leucadia Oaks Park. However, a Town Center Drive bridge over a tributary of Encinitas Creek does show “signs of corrosion and deterioration,” and if this “progresses or accelerates,” that bridge could shift from the “fair” into the “poor” category, the report states.
To view the report, visit: https://encinitas.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=7&clip_id=3916&meta_id=212352
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