To improve drainage at the heavily traveled Highway 101 underpass at Castillo St. in Santa Barbara, construction is underway to battle groundwater.
"The force of the water pressure on the roadway right here is exceptional, so we're constantly battling that pressure and it wants to cork through everywhere it can where the path of least resistance is," explained Jason Klein, Caltrans Senior Construction Engineer.
Klein says the Castillo St. underpass was built in the 1960s, and the busy intersection consistently has standing water on the roadway.
To avoid slippery areas, it needs to be cleaned frequently.
"The goal of this project is to provide a pressure relief valve for that groundwater and try to encourage it to go out through other ways and not over the roadway," Klein said.
The estimated $500,000 project started Monday and is expected to last eight weeks.
How will this impact traffic?
"We are just closing the bike lane. They can share the road across the intersection, and that way we're not closing lanes to do the work," Klein said.
Caltrans spokesperson Jim Shivers says because of Santa Barbara’s high water table, projects like these are caused by the environment.
"Our response to this is really more of a response to what Mother Nature has dealt us, and we're doing everything we can to try to control it," he said.
This is the first location to implement this type of water diversion in Santa Barbara, according to Klein.
"And if that's successful, we'll take that into consideration and consider doing additional locations if we can," he said.
