The Coast News Group
Public workshops on the College Boulevard widening project will be held sometime next year.
Public workshops on the College Boulevard widening project will be held sometime next year. File photo
CitiesCommunityOceanside

Design work begins for College Boulevard widening project

OCEANSIDE — A stretch of College Boulevard is on track to be widened from four to six lanes, with the design phase set to be complete in the next two years.

The Oceanside City Council approved an agreement with San Diego-based CR Associates to design the widening of College Boulevard from Waring Road to Old Grove Road in early December.

Proposed in 2020, the project would maintain College from Waring to Olive Drive as a four-lane major arterial with the exception of minor right-of-way and traffic calming improvements.

This would include minor widening of College at its intersection at Waring to convert the existing south and northbound right-turn lanes into merge lanes. Then from Olive, College Boulevard would be widened to six lanes all the way to Old Grove Road.

Additional elements of the project include improved safety measures and access points for intersections without signals, safer routes for bicyclists and pedestrians, and curb extensions at College and Marvin Street to shorten the crosswalk for pedestrians.

College Boulevard is classified as a six-lane major arterial from Waring Road to Old Grove Road, in the city’s General Plan traffic circulation element. Currently, the 2.41-mile stretch of road is built with four lanes.

Council approved the design agreement for the College Boulevard widening project by a 4-0 vote with Mayor Esther Sanchez abstaining.

Councilmember Christopher Rodriguez, who uses College Boulevard to take his kids to school, was pleased to see the project moving along as planned.

“This is a heavy traffic area,” he said. “I’m sure a lot of Oceanside residents are looking forward to this much-needed relief in traffic.”

The project’s design will be developed throughout the next year with construction preparation documents to start in 2022 and extend into 2023. Two public workshops on the project will be held sometime in 2022.

In order to expand College Boulevard to six lanes, the project still needs right-of-way acquisition along segments of its corridor.

The project’s design budget is $2.3 million overall. Currently, the city has the funds for all design work completed this current fiscal year, ending in June 2022, which is approximately $734,540.

The remaining $1.5 million will be paid once additional funding is available in the fiscal year 2022-2023. Staff anticipates receiving $4 million from the city’s Major Thoroughfare Program funds that same fiscal year, which will be used to pay for this portion of the project.

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