The much touted Rail Trail groundbreaking widens the existing pedestrian gangway on the San Lorenzo Trestle from 3ft to 10ft, but once across the river, bikes and pedestrians will still have to navigate up a narrow ramp and will be funneled on to a 4ft sidewalk along busy East Cliff Dr before reaching the Seabright Brewery, Betty Burgers, Pacific Edge Climbing Gym and other Seabright destinations.
The narrow bike lane, which continues across the Santa Cruz Harbor, has seen numerous accidents in the recent past and a fatality in 2018. Nothing has been done to improve bike safety along this dangerous section since the passage of Measure D in 2016.
“Right now the plans make the trail run next to the rail instead of replacing the rail with a trail as Monterey, New York and thousands of other communities across the country have done,” said Anderson. “That adds time, money and endangers lives,” he added.
Solving this same problem on Segment 7B, the Rail Trail stretch behind Neary Lagoon, has already produced plans for a nearly 30 ft. retaining wall and the removal of trees that are valuable monarch butterfly habitat. The local Sierra Club has challenged these plans because of the tree removal.
Nadene Thorne, a Greenway enthusiast for the past two years added, “I’d like to see the RTC go forward with building the Rail-Trail in this location (at Seabright). Massive concrete retaining walls and major excavation work would have to be done to keep the trail to the side of the existing tracks here. I personally would like to know what that is going to cost. It’s definitely a factor when you compare the current plan to the alternatives.”
“Bank the rail, build the trail,” said Manu Koenig, Executive Director of Santa Cruz County Greenway. “It’s time for the County to figure out the details of rail banking and move forward. For now, Greenway will try to keep the corridor clean and continue to encourage the RTC to act in the best interests of the people.”
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Santa Cruz County Greenway is a 501(c) 4 non-profit advocacy organization whose mission is “to create a spectacular Greenway as the backbone of an active transportation and transit network.”
For more info: https://sccgreenway.org