Ongoing street repair project paving the way for a smoother drive in Santa Maria

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - A multi-million dollar street repair project is helping provide a smoother drive around Santa Maria.

Over the past several weeks, work has been ongoing during a citywide street repair project on some of the busiest roadways in Santa Maria.

"We've had a number of main roads taking care of last year," said Sam Angulo, Santa Maria Public Works Operations Manager. "Mostly Blosser (Road), Betteravia (Road), portions of Railroad (Street) between Main (Street) and Donovan (Road)." 

Construction began about three weeks ago on Dec. 11, 2024, and is continuing for three more weeks.

"The whole purpose is trying to repair all those potholes," said Angulo. "From the past two years, we have been actually hammered by a lot of rain and it took a toll on our roads, so that developed a lot of potholes."

During the past two wet winters, Santa Maria Public Works Department has been constantly patching up a large amount of potholes everytime the city receives significant rainfall.

"We've had sometimes two crews repairing potholes in order to catch up. But we have a 24-square mile radius of the city," said Angulo. "It's everything has been a challenge this past two years after the storms. If we have any potholes that develop, and then water sits on them, it tends to get soft, and then the potholes continue to increase over time, and then if there is more rain and greater saturation on that particular area, it starts expanding, and it becomes a bigger hazard."

On Thursday, work crews were repairing West Morrison Avenue, between Broadway and Depot Street, near Santa Maria High School.

The construction closed traffic traveling westbound for a while and reduced the flow to only one lane traveling east.

Angulo pointed out anytime repairs are happening, it will likely cause some temporary road closures or delays to motorists.

"When we're doing these type of projects, there's a lot of moving parts," said Angulo. "We still have to keep the traffic moving, so we have to have flaggers. We have traffic control and close roads and that creates sometimes a chaos for people. People get desperate, but be patient. We're trying our best to accommodate everybody's needs to get to point A to point B. Just be mindful that it's going to take some time to get our streets back."

Santa Maria Public Works expects this round of street repairs to be completed by January 20, depenging on the weather.

The City said work is being funded by Measure A, Gas Tax, and SB-1 Gas Tax dollars.