Public Works: Fewer

Fewer trucks, more bikes: Santa Cruz paving project focuses on the environment

The River and Water streets project is one way Santa Cruz is connecting residents to the downtown area and more biking options. Biking is a popular mode of transportation in the city. Pictured is Santa Cruz’s Main Street. (Shutterstock.com)

By DANI MESSICK | The Municipal

A coastal California city is using its street projects to benefit not only its residents but the environment as well.

The city of Santa Cruz was recognized with a 2021 Award of Merit for Transportation Projects Less than $5 Million by the American Public Works Association, Monterey Bay Chapter. The award recognized its work on River Street and Water Street last year, but that was by no means the goal of the project.

“It’s about doing the right thing for the environment,” said Roberto Valdes, associate civil engineer for the city of Santa Cruz’s public works department.

The project included road repaving, bike lane improvements and ADA compliance measures.

“Whenever we do pavement improvement projects, we always take advantage to improve pedestrian infrastructure,” Valdes said.

Not only did workers add buffers to bike lanes and green paint to make those lanes more visible, but they also made their paving project as green as possible by using recycled materials to refresh the roadways.

“You could grind 4 inches of asphalt and remove those 4 inches of asphalt and truck those grindings outside of the city with trucks creating a lot of emissions that contaminate the environment, or you could lower the grinding and recycle the existing material,” Valdes explained. “You’ll reduce trucking by half, and then you don’t bring in 4 inches of asphalt to replace it, and you reduce the incoming trucking of the asphalt by half. You don’t want to replace 4 inches of asphalt.”

He continued, “Basically, we just ground 2 inches of existing asphalt, and we recycled 6 inches of the asphalt base. So we recycled most of the existing material, and then we installed back two inches of asphalt.”

The roads were failing regardless, and the city has done it this way for at least five years.

“You reduce a lot of trucking and traffic and emissions created by those trucks, plaster and asphalt.”

There was no other option for Santa Cruz.

“We didn’t do alternative bids because we were really interested in recycling the existing pavement,” Valdes said. “It’s not about the savings.”

In this process, cement and other materials are added to the asphalt grinding to make them stronger before filling the lower level of the roadway, then a few inches of asphalt is added to the top so it looks like a normal road, but it’s secretly stronger and more environmentally friendly. The city used up to 15% recycled asphalt.

The public works department also upcycled grindings for other city projects as well. Such was the case with the rail trail project.

“We didn’t waste it,” Valdes said. “The project was happening at the same time, and they needed materials to backfill the bad soils, so we just coordinated between engineers and our city and sent all ABOVE AND BELOW: Santa Cruz, Calif., was recognized for its River Street and Water Street project, which saw road repaving, bike lane improvements and ADA compliance measures being implemented. Pictured are before and after shots of Water Street. (Photos provided)

the grinding to that project so we didn’t have to just dump it on the landfill.”

The two streets are significant thoroughfare for the city, with Water Street and River Street connecting residential areas to the downtown and biking options, a popular mode of transportation in Santa Cruz.

Still, no project is without its struggles. For this street project to show real benefits for cyclists, the city had to remove some parking to allow for safer bike lanes.

“We have really good businesses in this town,” Valdez admitted, “They were really good sports and didn’t give us any trouble (on) removing the parking.”

The improvements to the street are noticeable as well.

“Looking at the street, it looked bad; I don’t think drivers were happy to take that route, (and) cyclists didn’t feel safe,” said Valdes, who cycles with his own child to the downtown area regularly. “Those two streets are usually very busy, and now they provide a smoother route, and it’s safer because now you can see the bike lanes.”