Repaving of La Jolla Parkway is underway as San Diego mayor lays out proposal for further street funding
Mayor Todd Gloria says his plans call for nearly $140 million in street repair and repaving across San Diego in the upcoming fiscal year, enough to cover 157 miles of streets.
The long-awaited project to repave La Jolla Parkway began May 1 and will continue from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sundays through Thursdays (weather permitting). It is expected to be completed by Memorial Day weekend, May 27-29.
The work, which includes base repair, asphalt overlay, adjustment of utilities and road striping, is part of San Diego’s “Sexy Streets’’ initiative.
The project is representative of road repairs “that I proposed in my fiscal-year 2024 ‘Getting It Done’ budget,” Mayor Todd Gloria said at a May 2 news conference on Ardath Road in La Jolla, fronting the parkway.
The proposals, heard by the City Council’s Budget Review Committee later that morning, call for nearly $140 million in street repair and repaving across San Diego, Gloria said.
The bulk of that funding — $104 million — would be for full repaving work like on La Jolla Parkway, where the 2.38-mile project will cost $2.1 million.
“This investment will allow us to resurface 157 miles of city streets with this ... budget” for fiscal 2023-24, which begins July 1, Gloria said. “This is over and above the miles of roadway that we already have programmed in for repair.”
La Jolla Parkway, the main thoroughfare linking Interstate 5 and State Route 52 to La Jolla Shores and The Village, has become notorious locally for its cracks and potholes, but the repaving project has been delayed several times since it was announced in January 2022.
It was originally to be done in two phases to accommodate the California Department of Transportation, which has purview over a small section of the parkway just before the ramps to I-5 and the 52. But in December, the project was postponed from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of this year and the work was consolidated to be done together.
The project was further delayed by cool weather as city crews waited for nighttime ambient air temperatures to stay above 50 degrees for two weeks so the new road material could set properly. The work is being done overnight to prevent large daytime traffic jams.
Gloria thanked La Jollans for their patience: “I know this community has been waiting a very long time for these repairs.”
Cold and rainy weather has delayed many road projects across the city, Gloria said. He added that city crews had been unable to perform roadwork on 75 days so far in 2023.
City Councilman Joe LaCava, whose District 1 includes La Jolla, asked for continued patience, noting that the La Jolla Parkway repaving will create “tricky” traffic conditions throughout the project.
“A little bit of pain now will deliver the roadway that we’ve all been waiting for,” LaCava said.
“This is just a sample of what we have planned for the future,” said city Chief Operating Officer Eric Dargan. “The city overall has been in great need. And this is a response to that.” ◆
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