Slurry seal work on La Jolla streets is deemed ‘completed,’ but La Jolla Shores Drive repaving is coming

Residents hoping that additional streets in La Jolla would be resurfaced following an extensive recent slurry seal project will have to wait awhile longer.

The city of San Diego is declaring the local slurry seal work complete for now, though crews may return for “punch-list” items such as touch-ups and spot repairs.

But street work in the 92037 ZIP code isn’t over, officials say. Down the line, La Jolla Shores Drive will be repaved, like La Jolla Parkway was in a project completed May 26.

The city applied slurry seal — a pavement preservation method consisting of asphalt emulsion, sand and rock applied to the surface at an average thickness of a quarter-inch — on streets throughout The Village and some surrounding neighborhoods starting April 25. The project was finished a few weeks later.

“The part of the [slurry seal] work scheduled for La Jolla has been completed with just a few ... touch-up tasks remaining,” said city spokesman Anthony Santacroce. “The city currently has multiple slurry projects in construction that are resurfacing hundreds of streets and dozens of miles of roadway all over San Diego.”

In April and May, Girard Avenue received slurry seal treatment between Prospect and Silverado streets, but local resident Jorge Sanchez noted that it did not between Silverado and Kline streets. The city of San Diego says its slurry seal work in La Jolla is complete for now.

( Jorge Sanchez)

Should additional streets in La Jolla be scheduled for resurfacing, the city will alert residents, he said.

Santacroce said streets are selected using the city’s Overall Conditions Index in conjunction with other factors, such as traffic volume, road type, equity, climate resiliency, mobility, maintenance history, other construction projects and available funding.

“Repairs are often grouped within a neighborhood to include streets that are in similar condition or performed after other projects, such as pipeline replacement,” he said.

Santacroce and other city representatives said that when an ongoing utility undergrounding project called Circuit 1J is completed, La Jolla Shores Drive will be resurfaced. A schedule was not immediately available.

Phase 1 of Circuit 1J includes the area west of La Jolla Shores Drive from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography south to Avenida de la Playa. Phase 2 — including putting overhead utilities underground in the area east of La Jolla Shores Drive from Scripps Oceanography south to Nautilus Street, installing five new streetlights and 14 disabled-accessible pedestrian ramps, and planting 24 new street trees — was completed in June.

Phase 1 was originally scheduled to be finished in the third quarter of this year but will be pushed later into the year so communications companies can remove their lines from the poles. After that, the poles can be removed. Once the project and associated infrastructure work is completed, the street will be resurfaced in a manner similar to La Jolla Parkway.

Smaller fixes were made recently to La Jolla Shores Drive to patch a deep groove that recently had been filled with sandbags by an unknown person. ◆