Replacement of an aging railroad bridge over the Santa Ynez River mouth at Vandenberg Space Force Base may lead to other improvements in the area, and project leaders are seeking ideas.

During a presentation at the Lompoc City Council meeting Tuesday, consultants from Althouse and Meade plus LegacyWorks Group shared about the project including efforts to collect community input on the design of the span at the western side of the Lompoc Valley. 

The project encompasses a large area including Union Pacific Railroad’s Surf Bridge, Ocean Park, the northern portion of Surf Beach and the lower portion of the Santa Ynez Estuary including the Santa Ynez River mouth.

“It’s an attractive place for a lot of reasons, and when we had the opportunity to be the consultant group to help with replacing this bridge the first thing is how can we make this better for nature and for our community,” said LynneDee Althouse, chief executive officer and president for Althouse and Meade. 

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation provided a $1 million grant for prep work including engineering, planning, biological surveys, community engagement and more. 

“The reason for our bridge replacement is several fold. One of them, it’s an old bridge. It has some flood risk,” she said.

The current bridge acts as a bottleneck for the water flow in and out of the area, she added.

The bridge sits near the county’s Ocean Beach Park and Surf Beach, which has limited access to the public for part of the year due to the federally protected shorebird, the Western snowy plover. 

“We can’t fix that, so part of our community engagement isn’t going to be about getting people onto the beach during plover season,” Althouse said.

The replacement project may provide an opportunity for long-discussed improvements such as the creation of a boardwalk to connect Ocean Park adjacent to the estuary with Surf Station, which leads to publicly accessible beach.

The effort also could lead to a larger parking lot near Amtrak’s Surf Station and Surf Beach entrance. The area has become a popular gathering spot for rocket launch spectators.

Planning work began last year with the community engagement phase now underway.   

The project team is seeking input from the community including government agencies and other groups to help create a design for the bridge, the restoration project and enhancements at the park, according to Ellen Kwiatkowski, Central Coast Region co-director for LegacyWorks. 

A survey for community members can be found on the project website at santaynezsurfbridge.org with a link at the top of the page. Placards with a QR code also have been placed at Surf and Ocean.

“The survey’s really targeted towards recreational users of Ocean Park and Surf Beach,” said Sophie Bartley, Central Coast region project manager for LegacyWorks. 

“We want to understand what people are already valuing about this space, any concerns they might have about the preliminary design and the construction, and of course what the vision for the future of this space could look like,” Bartley said. 

Team members will meet with various sectors of the community in the coming weeks.

A town hall will take place in July with various bridge design options to be presented to collect feedback before the proposal goes to Union Pacific. 

With a design selected, the schedule calls for securing permits and various approvals so the bridge replacement work could start in late 2028 or early 2029 with completion by 2030.

The railroad’s closure likely will last three weeks during the changeout, with plans to reduce the impact on access to the county park during the work.

“The current bridge needs to be replaced,” Bartley added. “The new bridge design offers the opportunity to make improvements both for the estuary and the community.”

Two other recent efforts led to replacements of the railroad bridge over Honda Creek on South Base plus the Narlon Bridge crossing San Antonio Creek on North Base.