The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors recently received a comprehensive report from its Department of Roads and Airports on damage to County-maintained roads from the 2022-23 winter storms. The report included the status of repairs, and the status of contingency plans for the subset of County roads that are closed or have one-way stop controls and serve as evacuation routes, including timelines for repairs.
“This winter we were hit by a series of devastating storms,” County Supervisor Joe Simitian said. “The storms hit the unincorporated and mountainous areas of the county particularly hard. Roads were undermined, eroded and covered by landslides, which was challenging—and dangerous—for area residents. The Board has since been working hard with County staff to ensure the Roads Department has the tools it needs, including funding and contracting authority, to repair the roads as quickly as possible.”
In January, 10 sites were damaged and closed. The County moved quickly to evaluate and repair those roads. Additional storms, however, resulted in there now being at least 20 damaged locations. In some cases, the passable roads are restricted to one lane with stop controls until full repairs can be made.
However, four roads have been completely closed since the February/March damage occurred and are currently the highest priority for repair. They are:
• Old Santa Cruz Highway. Tentative reopening within 90 days of April 18.
• Bear Creek Road. Tentative reopening within 60 days of April 18.
• Aldercroft Heights Road. Road will be continually assessed for safe interim reopening.
• Clayton Road (East San Jose Foothills). Road will be continually assessed for safe interim reopening.
At the April 18 Board of Supervisors meeting, Simitian urged the Roads Department to consider solutions that can safely re-open Aldercroft Heights Road and Clayton Road on an interim basis and while the repairs move forward.
“We all want our roads to be in good working order, we owe that to our residents,” Simitian said. “In that spirit, I’ll continue to encourage the County staff to find ways to expedite their work and still ensure they meet quality and safety standards. We need to get our roads repaired and reopened. ASAP.”
At its May 16 Board meeting, which ran past this publication’s deadline, the Board expected to act on two follow-up proposals: Direct the Roads Department to transfer $10.4 million from the Department’s rainy-day fund to cover the additional costs of road repairs; and direct County Fire to authorize $250,000 to provide, in partnership with other entities, chipping services along public access areas within the District in order to remove trees and branches which have fallen to the ground and pose a fire risk.
Members of the public can receive updates on road closures at countyroads.sccgov.org/roads-traffic-info/road-closures.
County of Santa Clara has NOT addressed the damages to (99%) the balance of the roadways in the Santa Cruz Mountains/Santa Clara County’s unincorporated areas — which all are NON-County maintained– but costs for maintenance and storm repairs are born by the Residents sharing these egress routes!