Santa Barbara Approves $11M Face-Lift for State Street Undercrossing

The State Street undercrossing connecting downtown and the waterfront will get an $11 million face-lift, featuring the trademark colorful twist of Santa Barbara architect Jeff Shelton, after the project gained unanimous support from the City Council on Tuesday.

Councilmember Mike Jordan called the design a “generational project” that will be here “50 years or 100 years from now and still benefiting the community.”

The project has been in the making for years as part of the city’s Vision Zero initiative to address collisions between vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists in high-traffic areas. Supervising Transportation Planner Jessica Grant explained during the council meeting that the State Street undercrossing between Gutierrez and Yanonali had “one of the highest concentrations of pedestrian- and bicycle-related collisions” in the city, and that the changes would rebalance the space by widening the sidewalks from eight to 15 feet and condensing vehicle traffic into one lane on either side with protected bike lanes throughout.

After being included in the city’s bicycle master plan in 2016, the project gained momentum and the city applied for and received a state transportation grant that helped fund $4.7 million toward the project. The city is paying $6.8 million.

Despite the high price tag, the remodeling project gained wide support from the council and from alternative transportation advocates. Barry Remis, an administrator with MOVE S.B., said the organization “supports and endorses” the project, and that it is a “pricey” but “wise investment into the future of the gateway to our city and to our downtown.” 

The council unanimously approved the six contracts for the project to fund construction (C.A. Rasmussen, $6.5 million); construction management (Filippin Engineering, $704,000); ironwork (David Shelton, $1.8 million); column tilework (Upton Construction, $471,000), design support (Bengal Engineering, $50,000); and secure a freeway management agreement with the city and Caltrans.

The undercrossing will have a new look, with brightly colored tiles adorning the columns along the walkway, designed by renowned Santa Barbara architect Jeff Shelton, as well as new light posts and custom ironwork railings — with flower-shaped cutouts along the sides — which were designed by Jeff and will be made by his brother David.

Jeff Shelton handled the architectural design of the undercrossing, and Bengal Engineering, which has built a number of bridges and waterway projects in Santa Barbara County, handled the engineering aspects.

City staff worked with the S.B. County Arts Commission, Grant said, to ensure that the area would be “a future canvas for future art.” This included electrical wiring to support art installations.

The all-new bike lanes would be separated from the traffic by large cones, much like the ones seen on the State Street promenade, and new lighting will make the crossing much safer at night, Grant said.

With the approval, the project team will hold a pre-construction conference in the next month, and construction could begin as early as the fall. Since the area serves as a major artery for nearly 13,000 pedestrians and cyclists any given weekend, the city will plan for construction on only one side at a time to allow traffic to cross between Gutierrez and Yanonali. City staff estimate that the project will take about 18 months to complete from the beginning of construction.