The 12-mile journey to Carpinteria from Santa Barbara can sometimes take as long as 40 minutes because of the ongoing roadworks to add one more lane to the highway. Word from SBRoads.com, the information arm for the project, is that these are the final segments of the extensive project, which should finally be finished by 2028. But this week, lanes will close at night as prep work for concrete paving takes place.
On the northbound 101, the left-hand lane will close at night — from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. — from Evans Avenue in Summerland to Hermosillo Road in Montecito on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 8 and 9, further narrowing to one lane on Thursday, September 10. For the southbound 101, the left lane will close from Milpas Street in Santa Barbara to Olive Mill Road in Montecito on Tuesday and Wednesday from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m., similarly narrowing to one lane on Thursday. Drivers will want to be aware that off- and on-ramps may be affected at San Ysidro, Olive Mill, and Milpas Street.
Removing the two-lane bottleneck through Montecito should improve conditions for the 109,000 vehicles that drive along the 101 daily. The two lanes and construction cause traffic jams second only to the stoplights in Santa Barbara that brought highway traffic to a complete stop every eight minutes or so until 1991, when the last red light went silent. The 101 carpool-lane project actually began in Santa Barbara with the Milpas to Montecito segment in 2012. The next phase skipped down to the county line and worked its way westward through Carpinteria, Padaro, and Summerland. Not only were carpool lanes added, but bridges over several creeks, bike lanes, pedestrian walkways, sound walls, plantings, and improvements to on- and off-ramps and nearby intersections.
The current phase is perhaps the most complicated. In addition to the carpool lane, the project removed the two fast-lane off-ramps for Cabrillo Boulevard, built two new bridges over Cabrillo Boulevard, added new roundabouts at Olive Mill Road and San Ysidro Road, and closed the Los Patos exit. Three lanes should run through Montecito by the end of this year, said Justin Glover of SBRoads. That will be followed by another couple years of median and pavement work, plus landscaping. Since 2012, the total cost for the 16-mile project is just shy of $1 billion.
A cousin to this long-running highway project is the widening of the railroad bridge over Cabrillo Boulevard, which is connected to the finalization of the onramp onto 101 southbound. The Cabrillo project is led by the City of Santa Barbara, which has already finished the roundabout portion at Los Patos. Supervising engineer Eric Goodall said Union Pacific was about 30 percent through its review of the rail work, which includes removal of the rail bridge at Los Patos, and anticipates a start date in 2028. The $50 million project to widen the underpass will also add pedestrian and bike ways between Montecito and the beach.
