Construction work to add pedestrian and bicycle safety features along a notoriously dangerous section of Highway 9 between Felton and the San Lorenzo Valley schools complex is underway and scheduled for completion by late summer 2027, according to Caltrans.
District 5 County Supervisor Monica Martinez hosted a town hall with Caltrans and the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) to discuss the State Route 9 Felton Safety Improvements project, commonly known as the “sidewalk project,” on Oct. 22 at San Lorenzo Valley High School.
“While this sidewalk project is for all of us in Felton, to be honest, it was really designed to make sure that our kids can get to and from school safely from downtown Felton,” said Martinez, who is also a Felton resident and parent of two San Lorenzo Valley Middle School students.
For more than four decades, traffic engineers and local transportation advocates have raised safety concerns about the highway section’s narrow shoulders, which range from 7 inches to 4 feet. In 1990, concrete retaining walls were added to the southbound lane, making the stretch even more dangerous.
The project will create 4- to 6-foot-wide sidewalks along with three new retaining walls. It also includes new curb ramps, gutter upgrades, and a new bus pad at San Lorenzo Valley High.
“The width varies because we’re in a very constrained area,” says Caltrans project manager Matt Welker, citing factors like the narrow right-of-way bounds, steep side slopes, and adjacent residential and commercial properties. “If you drive it every day, you feel how tight it is. That affects our design. We only have so much right-of-way that we can use.”
The narrow shoulders between Felton and the San Lorenzo Valley schools complex have contributed to multiple fatal vehicle and pedestrian incidents, most notably the 2019 death of 22-year-old Josh Howard. Howard was killed on the night of Feb. 21 while walking along the southbound shoulder.
“It’s a project that [started being discussed] a very long time ago, but the urgency has become more and more clear,” Martinez said. “We’ve had some really tragic incidents along this section of Highway 9.”
In February 2023, a Santa Cruz jury determined that Caltrans was responsible, in part, for Howard’s death. After four days of deliberation, Caltrans was ordered to pay Howard’s parents, Kelley Howard and Dimitri Jaumouille, $9.4 million. Jeremy Shreves, the motorist who struck Howard and pled guilty to felony manslaughter charges in 2020, was ordered to pay them $9.8 million.
The discovery phase of the lawsuit revealed Caltrans reports warning of the danger posed by the narrow shoulders dating back as far as 1985.
Planning and designing the sidewalk project began in earnest after Howard’s death in 2019. The project and its environmental review were approved in 2022. The designs were approved in 2025, and construction began this July. Caltrans hopes to wrap up the project by late summer 2027 although Welker acknowledged that winter storms may delay completion by a few months.
After hearing details of the sidewalk project at the Oct. 22 town hall, numerous community members, in particular local bicyclists, continued to express concerns.
After requesting clarification on whether the four-foot width of the bike lane also included the gutter pan, which is the slightly indented channel of concrete used to catch water runoff, Felton resident Ben Ruggeberg said he wouldn’t feel safe riding in the lane with his children.
“I have no intention of riding with my kids in that gutter pan. It can be full of leaves and nails. I’ll just take the whole lane if I have to or use the friendlier back streets,” said Ruggeberg.
Caltrans officials admitted that the sidewalk project is not a perfect solution. Due to space constraints, a two-way bike lane is not possible.
“We don’t have enough right-of-way or space to put that in our design,” Welker said. “We recognize a good portion of our young kids are not confident riders at that age, so some will be using, I’m sure, the sidewalk.”
In addition, the plan doesn’t include a crosswalk with a flashing beacon to help bicyclists cross Highway 9.
The sidewalk project is a collaboration between the state transit agency, the Santa Cruz County RTC, San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District and the District 5 supervisor’s office.
