Carlsbad Improving Bike Lanes

The City of Carlsbad will widen bicycle lanes on Carlsbad Boulevard and El Camino Real, two popular bicycle routes, after they are repaved, and will add new bicycle lanes on Carlsbad Village Drive between Interstate 5 and the beach. 

“We’re taking advantage of our regular street maintenance to make roadways in Carlsbad better for all users,” said City of Carlsbad Deputy Transportation Director Bryan Jones. “In some cases we’ll be widening and even adding bicycle lanes where they don’t exist today. Along Carlsbad Boulevard we will also be utilizing buffered bike lanes to create separation from travel lanes or parallel-parked-vehicle doors.” Major streets that will receive a new pavement layer as part of this year’s program are:

• Carlsbad Boulevard north of Tamarack Avenue
• Carlsbad Village Drive west of Interstate 5
• The southbound lanes of El Camino Real south of Levante Street. (The northbound lanes of El Camino Real were resurfaced last year.)

Several residential streets are part of this year’s program as well. 

A map is available on the city website showing where and when work is scheduled.  

Some streets need only a coat of slurry seal to bring them up to the proper standard, but others need a new pavement layer, which involves patching the pavement surface to remove cracks and other defects, then applying a thin layer of rubberized asphalt concrete to the surface. The expected life of the new pavement will be about 20 years. 

City of Carlsbad Construction Manager Casey Arndt said the city tries very hard to minimize the impact during peak business months, although the pavement work is sometimes delayed due to weather conditions.  “We want to do it when it is least disruptive,” Arndt said, and noted that most of the overlay will take place between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., for the same reason. He said the work is not too noisy to be done at night, and neighboring businesses and residents will be informed before work begins.

The project will entail partial road closures. 

The $2.45 million contract for the pavement overlay project was awarded to All American Asphalt, and City of Carlsbad staff will supervise the work. The project is funded through the city’s Capital Improvement Program budget, and the money comes from state gas tax funds, TransNet funds and fees paid by trash haulers. 

–City of Carlsbad