The City of San Luis Obispo is planning for road work in neighborhoods near Cal Poly.
The areas that will be undergoing road construction are labeled on the map below in green and purple, or areas 1 and 8.
"We'll go in and remove the striping, we'll kind of grind it off the roadway. We'll come in over a series of days and put down a seal coat, we'll let that sit for a little bit, and then we'll come back and put roadway striping on it," explained Matt Horn, City of San Luis Obispo Public Works Director.
He adds that there will be impacts to people living nearby and added traffic.
Parking will also be temporarily unavailable on the affected roads.
"When we seal different areas of the street, we need to pop around to sporadic locations so that people can still get to their home in a reasonable walking distance and try to reduce the impact to neighborhoods," Horn said.
Most of the work being done will be resealing, but there will be a restructuring of traffic on Grand Avenue.
The city will be creating a "diet," which will turn Grand Avenue from a five-lane road into a three-lane road.
"It's going to get pretty congested with all the traffic, which can be a problem, but I understand that it is important for pedestrian safety," said resident Tyler Allen.
Allen's roommate, Bradley Blakemore, says he’s concerned about how it will impact the start of Cal Poly’s fall quarter.
"Move-in day is already like the most chaotic time around Cal Poly. You can barely drive like anywhere," he said.
Horn says the changes to Grand Avenue will be done with paint instead of thermoplastic striping, which lasts about a decade, so the city can see how well the new lines work before making the change permanent in a year or so.
Horn says the work on neighborhoods off of main roads like Highland, and California Boulevard, and the Grand Avenue diet will begin toward the end of this month and continue through the end of 2024.
For more information on future road work in San Luis Obispo, visit https://www.slocity.org/government/department-directory/public-works/construction-and-traffic-updates/slo-in-motion/transportation-improvements.
