New 101 Overcrossing Proposed in Goleta

For the past decade, the City of Goleta has wanted to reduce congestion at Storke Road and Hollister Avenue, and also at Glen Annie and Calle Real, by building a new road to the west over Highway 101. After public meetings at Brandon School around 2010, of 13 possible solutions, three have emerged for further scrutiny to connect Hollister to Calle Real. Two of the three S-shaped proposals begin on the overpass’s south side at Entrance Road in Ellwood, cross properties to the north and end up at either Brandon or San Rossano drives. The third option starts at Ellwood Station Road and ends up at San Rossano Drive.

The designs currently are for single lanes and include sidewalks and unprotected bike lanes. Most of the discussion at Goleta’s City Council on Tuesday centered around making the bike lanes Class 1, or completely separate from other traffic, in order to connect to the Class 1 bike path being built along Hollister to Ellwood School.

The council voted unanimously to have Drake Haglan and Associates, which has been shepherding this project all along, conduct preliminary engineering, traffic impact, drainage, and environmental studies for the three alternatives. As the project includes crossing the 101, Caltrans’s approval will be needed, and more public presentations are in the offing. Drake’s cost is to be no more than $1,241,140 for this phase and may take up to two years.