{"id":55065,"date":"2025-11-16T00:19:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T00:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/55065\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T00:19:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T00:19:07","slug":"torrey-pines-road-guardrail-construction-now-slated-to-begin-next-summer-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/55065\/","title":{"rendered":"Torrey Pines Road guardrail construction now slated to begin next summer \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

The replacement of a long-standing K-rail barrier on a section of Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla with 350 feet of metal bridge rail is now expected to take place months after it was originally planned.<\/p>\n

The previous timeline<\/a> had construction beginning this winter on the north side of Torrey Pines between Coast Walk and Prospect Place and ending by next summer. Now it is expected to commence in the summer and conclude by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n

The schedule was adjusted \u201cdue to the addition of pothole activity confirming the location of underground utilities,\u201d San Diego city spokesman Caleb Olsen told the La Jolla Light. That information is being verified and incorporated in the final design plans, Olsen said.<\/p>\n

According to the city\u2019s Capital Improvement Program database, the design phase of the project is expected to wrap up by the end of this year. Olsen said an \u201cadvertising phase\u201d will start this winter in which the city solicits bids from contractors to work on the project.<\/p>\n

The week of Aug. 18-22, La Jolla residents and visitors got a taste of what the project might look like when the westbound right-turn lane and bike lane between Coast Walk and Prospect Place were closed in the morning and afternoon as preliminary work was conducted.<\/p>\n

City crews completed pothole work and confirmed the locations of underground utilities before doing \u201cother, minor activities\u201d as a way to \u201chelp determine specifics of the project scope,\u201d city spokesman Tyler Becker said at the time.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe replacement of a K-rail barrier with a bridge rail will take place on the north side of Torrey Pines Road between Coast Walk and Prospect Place in La Jolla. (Bing Maps and La Jolla Light)<\/p>\n

Commute times as long as 40 minutes caused concerns among La Jolla residents<\/a>, with some describing the prospect of the guardrail construction as a potential traffic nightmare, \u201ca mess\u201d and \u201ca disaster.\u201d Others pointed to a need for the project, despite the inconveniences.<\/p>\n

City Council President Joe LaCava, whose District 1 includes La Jolla, told the Light that he acknowledges the challenges of the project and the patience it requires but pointed to a key difference between the preliminary work and the construction phase.<\/p>\n

The plan is to have a phase of nighttime work in which the northern westbound traffic lane and its neighboring bike lane would be closed, according to the city. The area is to be cleared for vehicle use during the day, barring unforeseen circumstances.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The] pre-construction work was done during daylight hours and caused considerable disruption and congestion,\u201d LaCava said. \u201cThe actual construction, in contrast, will be done at night to avoid similar impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n

City officials could not immediately be reached for comment on whether any construction details have changed recently.<\/p>\n

The original timeline was announced earlier this year at a La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Board meeting by city project manager Nazie Mansury and Larry Thornburgh, director of engineering at Nasland Engineering, the engineer of record for the project.<\/p>\n

T&T Chairman Erik Gantzel said he learned of the construction delay a couple of weeks ago from Mansury in response to questions about the traffic control plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn one hand, I\u2019m relieved the city isn\u2019t rushing ahead before all the pieces are in place, and I\u2019m also relieved that the traffic nightmare isn\u2019t upon us quite yet,\u201d Gantzel said. \u201cOn the other hand, it would be nice to just get it over with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The guardrail project is a long time coming.<\/p>\n

The saga began in January 2018 when a car careened off Torrey Pines Road onto the adjacent hillside, landing in the yard of one of the Coast Walk houses below. Soon after, the concrete K-rail was installed as a temporary protective measure.<\/p>\n

A year later, efforts began to find a more permanent solution. Thornburgh said the 42-inch-tall ST-75 bridge rail is see-through and \u201cmore robust than the K-rail.\u201d \u2666<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The replacement of a long-standing K-rail barrier on a section of Torrey Pines Road in La Jolla with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,930,5184,6804,6953,74,84,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-55065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-la-jolla","10":"tag-la-jolla-light","11":"tag-la-jolla-light-news","12":"tag-la-jolla-shores","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-county","15":"tag-san-diego-headlines","16":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}