Update on De La Vina Street Bridge Project
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - The last of four businesses impacted by a future creek widening project on De La Vina Street has closed.
Mishay Salon joins the ranks of YellowBird, Marty's Pizza and, De La Vina Liquor after the parcels they shared were acquired by the City of Santa Barbara for the De La Vina Street Bridge Over Mission Creek Replacement Project.
"We're hoping to start construction in Spring of next year," said Eric Goodall, Supervising Engineer for the Streets Engineering Design Team. "It'll be a two year construction project. We have to phase it all because we have tons of utilities in the bridge."
The City will maintain traffic along De La Vina Street during all phases of construction.
Goodall said like other older, structurally deficient bridges throughout the city that have not been rebuilt, this particular bridge is roughly 75 to 100 years old. It does not hold any historic significance.
"It's a wide bridge and it serves so many lanes of traffic that in order to make the street function properly and get the utilities through the bridge at the right time without just cutting everything off, we're going to demo the (west) downstream side first and then we'll demo the (east) upstream side next. It'll be a year process for each side of the bridge."
Goodall shared a rendering of the area once construction is complete, which is anticipated in 2027.
"There will be some restoration of the creek where currently there are all the businesses. So, we'll have a lot of trees installed, lots of revitalizing this area and opening the space up a bit. And of course we're widening the whole bridge, creating wider sidewalks across the bridge so it's a little more pedestrian friendly as well as safer for vehicles and then increasing the bridge's capacity for storms up to what we have more downstream."
Goodall added that widening the local bridges and creeks is in anticipation of what he called, "25 year floods."
"Right now when water comes down in heavy flows it hits against, basically, the wall of the bridge."
Plans are currently being submitted to Caltrans to help with the City's cost. City documents show funding for the $11,750,000 project will come from the Federal Aid Highway Bridge Program and local funds.
