Measure D

In 2016, Santa Cruz County voters approved Measure D, a one-half cent sales tax that funds transportation projects for 30 years. A portion of the funding is managed and spent in Watsonville and cannot be taken away by the State for other projects. Each year, the City develops a five-year expenditure plan.

Downtown Revitalization Project

Figure 1: Downtown Vision Main St. Proposed Improvements

This project was driven by the Downtown Specific Plan which intended to knit together the historic Downtown with adjacent industrial and residential areas to create walkable, complete neighborhoods with a mix of retail and services, and residential buildings that will activate Downtown throughout the day and into the evening. The City hired Ecology Action to write a grant intended to pay for Safe Routes to Downtown Schools. The grant won a $6.8M Cycle, 6 Active Transportation Projects (ATP) geared towards implementing Class II and Class III bicycle lanes, installing high visibility crossings, and improving accessibility ADA ramps. In addition, the City hired Diamond D Company to perform sidewalk improvements, three, removal, installation of curb and gutters, ADA ramps along 5th. St. (Brennan Ave. to Main St.)

Figure 2: Downtown Future Main Street Cross Section

Citywide Bicycle Facilities

Watsonville focused on supporting pedestrian and bicycle safety education throughout Watsonville schools. This included pedestrian and bicycle safety training in elementary schools, providing bicycles and bicycle safety training for middle school students and training high school students to mentor the middle school students receiving the bicycles. It also included sponsoring Bike to Work activities in Watsonville.

The City hired Ecology Action to provide comprehensive, interactive, youth bicycle and pedestrian education to elementary students at Watsonville public schools. Ecology Action performed in person walk smart classroom presentations, walking field trips for 2nd grade classes, bike rodeos for 5th grade classes, and hand out bike helmets and safety lights.

In addition, the City contracted with “Bike Santa Cruz County” an organization which assisted in the bicycle safety training at the 2021 Bike Santa Cruz County Bike Camp.

Pedestrian Traffic Safety

The City hired Mesiti-Miller Engineering (MME) to design Lincoln Street Safety Improvements between (Beach (SR152) to Riverside (SR 129), Project highlight was installing Willy the Wildkat logo at the Intersections of (Lincoln St. and Alley) & (Lincoln St. and Maple Ave.). The project included grading for street drainage and accessibility, pedestrian, bicycle, school bus and motor vehicle directional and control signs, painted pedestrian crossings and bicycle lanes on City streets, new curbs, gutters, sidewalks, street drains, street lights, and planter islands/bulb outs on City streets and on the Watsonville High School Campus, and new drought tolerant landscaping on the Watsonville High School campus, enhanced pedestrian crossing, updated accessibility feature, install bicycle amenities, artistic enhancement in intersections and on lights, and provide educational elements for bicycle and pedestrian safety.

In addition, the city purchased multiple traffic safety and speed hump equipment from Traffic Logix Corporation, installation was performed by City crew.

In order to comply with funding requirements, the city hired Diamond D Company to continue improvements of concrete sidewalks, ADA curb ramps, tree removal and installation of curb and gutters along E. 5th St. City also contracted with Traffic Patterns on-call to design roadway striping plan aimed at improving safety, pedestrian crossing, and installing class II and class III bicycle. The City of Watsonville teamed up with City of Santa Cruz in implementing the Vision Zero Traffic Safety by creating a series of videos titled “Street Smart” Campaign to educate residents on safe crossing, driving in school zones, riding bicycles, and wearing bicycle protection gear. Videos can be viewed here.

Bridge Street Reconstruction

City hired CSG Consultants to perform preliminary analysis to design Bridge Street between [Blackburn St. to Beck St]. City hired Pacific Crest Engineering to perform soil boring to assess soil conditions that is causing pavement failure. CSG contacted PG&E to investigate shallow high pressure gas pipeline installation along Bridge St.

Pennsylvania Dr. Reconstruction

Pennsylvania Road has faced roadway failure between (the Clifford Ave. roundabout till Winding Way). The City hired Cal Engineering & Geology Inc. (CE&G) to perform geological investigations and come up with solutions to stabilize soil conditions, rebuild the road, keeping in mind Vision Zero goals of providing safety for bicyclist and pedestrians on this road.