For years, parts of the aging Cathedral Oaks Road have been in a state of disrepair. As funding remains a barrier to the reconstruction that’s needed, Goleta’s Public Works has been doing phased pavement maintenance.
City spokesperson Kelly Hoover said maintenance work for the road is being carried out in phases through the city’s annual pavement management program, with the next phase anticipated to be complete by the end of next year.
With the city’s 2021 Pavement Project, Cathedral Oaks Road received pavement treatment from Calle Real to Winchester Canyon Road and from Alameda Avenue to just west of North Los Carneros Road. The city’s 2022 Pavement Project involved pavement treatment on Cathedral Oaks Road from Evergreen Drive to Alameda Avenue.
Hoover said the total costs of maintenance on these segments was about $5.4 million, with pavement reconstruction, American Disability Act improvements, signage, and striping upgrades.
She said that pavement maintenance on the portion of Cathedral Oaks Road from Winchester Canyon Road to Evergreen Drive is up next. Public Works will go to the City Council in early 2024 to bid for the annual Pavement Rehabilitation Project, which will include this additional segment.
“Depending on the construction bid amounts, additional bid alternates selected, and available funding at the time of award, work is anticipated to be completed at the end of 2024,” Hoover told Noozhawk.
Cathedral Oaks Road, along with most of Goleta’s suburbs, were constructed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, meaning all of these roads are aging at the same rate. The city said that Cathedral Oaks Road has been deteriorating for the past 20 years.
Public Works Director Charlie Ebeling said last year that Cathedral Oaks Road has aged to the point where the asphalt is brittle, causing cracks to form and small rocks to come loose and form potholes.
“Unfortunately for the city, a lot of our roadways, especially Cathedral Oaks, are aging faster than the city can fund them,” Ebeling said in a video on the city’s YouTube page. “We’re asking citizens to be patient as the Department of Public Works and the city look at how we obtain funding for Cathedral Oaks.”
At the time of the 2022 message, Ebeling said the city had a backlog of $60 million in pavement needs in addition to the $16 million to $18 million it would cost to reconstruct Cathedral Oaks Road.
While other transportation and infrastructure projects are able to take place with the help of federal and state grants, Ebeling said that these funds cannot legally be shifted away from the specified projects.
Additionally, over the years, city leaders have decided to shift money from the pavement maintenance program or projects like the Cathedral Oaks crib wall repair to fund other projects the city has prioritized, such as the Old Town Interim Striping Project.
Another component of Cathedral Oaks Road requiring repair is the crib wall, which was damaged by sinkholes caused by winter storms in January 2017 and further exacerbated by this year’s winter storms.
Because of this damage, parts of the multipurpose path along Cathedral Oaks Road near Calle Real have been closed and fenced off for years.
In June 2023, the Goleta City Council awarded the conceptual design contract for the repair project to Bengal Engineering, Inc.
Construction for the project, which is estimated to cost more than $17 million, won’t start until 2025, according to the contract timeline.