Remaining Slurry Seal for Santa Fe Street will be Completed by Month-End

Councilmember Sherri Lightner in District 1 had asked for Santa Fe Street to be repaved back in November 2010.

The street was repaved recently but very poorly done which was immediately noticed by everyone riding the street. I received a series of emails and complaints about the poor quality of repaving that was recently completed on Santa Fe Street – the street that is a major thoroughfare for those heading up to UCSD and Torrey Pines. Here is one (of many) emails I received about this problem, this one from Forrest Roberts:

Santa Fe North of Balboa has recently been paved. It looked great, but when riding a bicycle on it, it was more like a total rumble strip. What happened? Bicyclers usually are delighted to ride on a newly paved road because it is smooth. Last week the City (or contractor) placed more material on the roadway to help with the roughness. It helped a lot. BUT they did not cover the bike lanes and they are still like a rumble strip all the way. What happened? Watching bicyclers now, they do not ride in the bike lane, but ride in the traffic lanes because it is rideable. This takes away the safety for the riders and detracts from the auto drivers when they see cyclers in the roadway. Would you pleas pass this on to the City Bicycle coordinator to find our what happened and can a fix be made.??? Or should we contact our City Councilperson in that area, Lori Zapf, or maybe even the Turko File. This is a heavy traveled Bicycle route, used by UCSD students, commuters, and recreational riders.

The City Bike Coordinator, Tom Landre, rode over to check out Santa Fe Street earlier this week and responded that the remaining slurry seal for the entire stretch of Santa Fe Street will be completed by 28th and 29th of July.

I haven’t had the time to check out Santa Fe, but if you’d like to send in photos, please send them to sam@bikesd.org

Edit: I neglected to thank Alex Bell from Councilmember Lorie Zapf’s office who was also responsive to some of the questions I had on Santa Fe. Santa Fe Street is part of District 6 represented by Councilmember Zapf’ until December after which it will become part of District 2 represented by Councilmember Kevin Faulconer.