DEL MAR — Jimmy Durante Boulevard is slated for a $3.5 million facelift next year, with a major repaving and restriping project aimed at improving and calming traffic around the Del Mar Fairgrounds while creating safer conditions for bicyclists and pedestrians.
The Del Mar City Council reviewed proposed designs for the pavement and traffic striping project at their Monday meeting. The project will cover Jimmy Durante from the intersection with Via de la Valle to the bridge crossing the San Dieguito Lagoon.
This area totals approximately 340,000 square feet of pavement improvements, or about 8% of the city’s total pavement area.
City staff overseeing the project said the project has required frequent collaboration with the fairgrounds to ensure the new striping allows the road to remain flexible and continue to be used to manage traffic during major events like the county fair, horse races, and more.
“This is kind of a unique situation, given that you have such a big operator here with the fairgrounds. The traffic demands a lot of capacity at certain times,” said Traffic Engineer Ryan Zellers.
During large events, the center lane on Jimmy Durante is frequently used as an alternate lane to allow traffic to continue north or southbound and bypass cars waiting in line. The city is proposing to narrow the center lane width from 24 feet to a more standard 11 feet.
Zellers said the fairgrounds can still use the narrowed lane as an additional “third” lane.
When entering Jimmy Durante Boulevard from Via de la Valle, there are four lanes that almost immediately reduce to three, then to two. The new striping will have three lanes at the start of Jimmy Durante, which will drop down to two after the first stable gate.
One of these two lanes will become a right-turn pocket that leads into the main gate, followed by the rideshare gate and the fire gate, with just one lane continuing south to the bridge. Currently, two southbound lanes only merge into one near the fire gate.
“The amount of traffic that goes all the way between the main gate and the bridge is not significant enough to require two lanes, so one lane should be fine,” Zellers said.
Where Jimmy Durante forks off into two right-turn lanes onto Via de la Valle, staff said the project will also add pavement symbols to indicate which lane leads to southbound Interstate 5 versus northbound.
When driving here, motorists visiting the area often wind up in the wrong lane for the freeway entrance but are unable to immediately change lanes due to the solid striped line, which can back up traffic.
Council members asked whether it would be possible to make the solid line into a broken line sooner, so drivers can change lanes more easily before reaching the southbound onramp.
“If they had the ability to feel like they could legally inch over to the left versus crossing a solid line — because the sheriff will pull you over for that and ticket you — is that something we could look at?” Spelich asked.
Zellers said this would require significant collaboration with the city of San Diego, as a portion of the road falls within their territory.
Del Mar will also add more buffered bike lanes and additional green paint striping to increase visibility in conflict areas, or areas where bikes and vehicles may interact on the road.
There are currently two pedestrian crosswalks across Jimmy Durante — one just north of the fire station and another across the two right-turn lanes near Via de la Valle to the traffic island before crossing the rest of Jimmy Durante.
The project will not add new crosswalks, but will add clearer “yield” symbols on the roadway for cars as well as clearer striping to guide pedestrians to the crosswalk.
City leaders recognized that many pedestrians and cyclists don’t currently feel safe using Jimmy Durante Boulevard because traffic can move quickly in the area and it can get very busy during events.
Mayor Terry Gaasterland, who frequently bikes in Del Mar, said she tends to avoid biking in this area during high traffic and uses other bike pathways such as the river park. Councilmember Tracy Martinez said that it can feel dangerous even when it’s not peak traffic time.
“I think it’s a risk during the race season for sure, but it’s a risk all the time, because traffic is just so fast there,” Martinez said.
Zellers said while bike and pedestrian infrastructure along this road poses challenges, the goal of the restriping is to make things feel safer and ultimately lower traffic speeds by modernizing the road.
Estimated project costs include $2.7 million for construction, $276,000 for contingency, around $57,300 for design, and around $400,000 for construction management, engineering services, and other tasks.
Most of the project funding, around $2.2 million, comes from the city’s General Fund. The remainder comes from various sources, including TransNet, Measure Q, SB 1 Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation funds, State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, and the Regional Transportation Congestion Improvement Program.
This project is also part of a larger effort to improve pavement conditions in the city. A 2024 pavement condition assessment gave the city an overall Pavement Condition Index (PCI) of 76 out of 100, which is considered “good.” Conditions along Jimmy Durante Boulevard range from 49 to 62, with the majority of the roadway rated “poor.”
Del Mar has committed funding toward raising the citywide PCI to 80.5 by 2029.
After final designs are completed, the city plans to advertise the project for public bid by late January. Construction is expected to take about 3 months and be completed by May, avoiding significant impacts on large events scheduled at the fairgrounds.
Jimmy Durante will remain open to traffic during the project, with some anticipated delays.
