DEL MAR — The long-awaited replacement of the aging Camino Del Mar bridge is expected to cost more and take longer than originally planned, officials told the Del Mar City Council on Monday.
Around 93 years old and in deteriorating condition, the Camino Del Mar Bridge serves as a crucial corridor between Del Mar and Solana Beach, crossing the San Dieguito River at North Beach. The project will lengthen the 600-foot bridge by 24 feet, widen it to accommodate an additional east-side sidewalk, and raise it by 3.16 feet to accommodate sea-level rise.
The new bridge will offer two lanes of vehicle traffic, protected bike lanes, and add two new pedestrian lookouts to the west sidewalk.
At this point, a final design draft has been submitted to Caltrans and is awaiting approval. The bidding process for construction is expected to begin in the summer, with actual field work to start in early 2027.
Project costs were estimated to be around $72 million as of late 2024. On Monday, city staff provided an updated estimate of $80 million.
Officials said the cost increase is not unique to this project, with many other capital projects seeing costs skyrocket due to labor and material costs.
“A lot of large projects have been coming up over budget. We’re trying to preclude that as much as we can, so that we’re giving you the news early rather than having it come out in the bids and finding out we’re over budget,” said Jim Frost of engineering and construction firm Kleinfelder Inc.
The bulk of the project’s funding comes from a Federal Highway Administration Bridge Program grant, which covers 88.5% of the total cost. This comes to around $70 million when recent cost increases are taken into account.
Del Mar is relying on state and local grants to cover the remaining cost. The city secured $3.5 million from the San Diego County Board of Supervisors in 2021 and $2.2 million in State Priority Legislative Budget funds in 2022, and was recently selected by SANDAG for a $2.7 million Smart Growth Incentive Program grant.
This leaves $1.2 million in project costs to be covered using the city’s General Fund. However, City Manager Ashley Jones emphasized that the Smart Growth grant is still pending and needs to be formally approved by the SANDAG Board of Directors soon.
“We’ve leveraged every outside source of funding for this project, as you know, including from the county,” said Jones.
Another contributor to rising project costs is the extension of the project timeline, which has grown from an estimated construction timeframe of 36 months to 50 months, according to Del Mar Principal Engineer Karen Falk. This means the project will be complete in 2031.
Staff explained that part of this increase in duration is to be expected when design levels reach around 100%, as contractors get a clearer picture of what needs to be completed. However, some of this is due to utility companies.
According to the city, some project stages had to be extended several months to accommodate requirements from SoCalGas and San Diego Gas & Electric for review, approvals, and inspections for their utility work. The city is working with utility companies to shorten this timeline as much as possible.
“We continue to try to get them to nudge along on the design process and all their standard requirements that don’t seem like they fit on this type of project, but yeah, it’s difficult,” Falk said.
The City Council expressed frustration with SDG&E and asked city staff to make it clear to SDG&E that its longer timeline would negatively impact the city by driving up project costs and inconveniencing residents for longer.
This is not the first time the city has accused SDG&E of being unclear about estimated costs and project timelines, with similar frustrations arising during the city’s recent utility undergrounding phases.
“It really bothers me that 14 months is being added now, because SDG&E is a bureaucratic monopoly,” Councilmember Dan Quirk said.
Frost gave a caveat that utility companies couldn’t be blamed for the entire 14-month extension.
Councilmembers also discussed potential ways to shorten construction time, from hiring more workers to completely revisiting how work will be phased.
Rather than completely closing down traffic along Camino Del Mar during the project, Del Mar leaders agreed in 2019 to use phased construction. This will involve removing half of the old bridge while keeping the other half partially open to traffic, then switching traffic to the partially built new bridge while the remaining old bridge is removed and the rest of the new bridge is constructed.
This allows emergency access through the area to be maintained, along with public access to the North Beach and Dog Beach area. There will also be a temporary loss of around 65 parking spaces.
Mayor Terry Gaasterland asked whether it would be possible to revisit that discussion and review the trade-offs of phased construction versus doing everything at once, which would require redirecting traffic to Jimmy Durante Boulevard. City staff and other council members said this was a nonstarter.
“The council made a decision six years ago … that this entire project has been designed and permitted to accommodate. Millions of dollars have been spent based on prior council direction,” said Jones.
Councilmember John Spelich said what’s done is done, and reminded the council of the significant traffic impacts when Jimmy Durante was closed for a day around six months ago, calling it “carmageddon.”
“You can’t hurry a bridge,” he said. “I think you’re gonna value having that bridge open, even if it’s an extra 12 months, because the alternative is too heinous to consider.”
During the same meeting, the City Council also approved a $50,000 contract amendment with Kleinfelder for unexpected additional site surveying work. According to Kleinfeld, a significant accumulation of sand since 2023 has affected the surface elevations under the bridge, requiring updated studies that will be incorporated into the final design.
