With a “big effort” still in progress to underground power lines and replace street lights, city of San Diego staff say repaving will begin in late 2027.
Undergrounding power lines, replacing street lights and eventual resurfacing of roads in La Jolla Shores has been ongoing since 2020; the completion of all project aspects is about two years away.
“Undergrounding is a big task, a big effort,” Zach Barhoumi, senior civil engineer for the city of San Diego’s Engineering & Capital Projects Department, said at the Feb 18 La Jolla Shores Association meeting.
The street light work and repaving are all components of the Block 1J Phase 1 undergrounding project, which will eventually see all utility poles removed.
Streets have already been trenched and lines laid underneath the roads in The Shores west of La Jolla Shores Drive from Avenida de la Playa north to UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Undergrounding
The undergrounding work was scheduled to be completed in 2023 but suffered many delays and is now nearly finished. SDG&E completed the majority of the work; only Crown Castle and AT&T need to complete their portion of undergrounding, which is scheduled to be finished by the fall.
Immediately after the companies are finished, the utility poles will come down, city senior engineer Ana Del Rincon said.
The conduits are already installed, she added; some splicing and cabling are the only tasks remaining.
La Jolla Shores streets including Vallecitos will be repaved in the next two years.
Streelights
West of La Jolla Shores Drive, 37 streetlights have been installed since construction began Dec 2024, with 35 of them energized starting in July.
One of the 37 is awaiting SDG&E service and a second light was turned off after neighbor complaints about brightness; a dimmable photocell and shield have been ordered for that light.
Street resurfacing
Much of the undergrounding work – digging up roads for trenching – has caused residents to complain about road conditions and ask at repeated intervals for repaving.
The resurfacing project in The Shores will involve affected streets receiving asphalt, slurry seal or concrete, matching what each was originally constructed with.
About 4.5 miles of roads will receive an asphalt overlay, a process during which crews grind down the top two inches of asphalt and replace it with new asphalt.
About a half-mile of road will receive concrete replacement.
Another half-mile of road will receive slurry seal, a road resurfacing method to slow street deterioration.
“Slurry seal is not an extensive repair,” Barhoumi said, and “would only be used if the street is in good enough condition to do so.”
The project also includes the installation of 29 ADA curb ramps.
The resurfacing portion of the project is estimated to cost $14.55 million and is set to begin in summer 2027, with a fall 2028 completion date.
The project is currently in an early design phase, Barhoumi said, with team members working to inspect existing curbs, measuring for repairs and evaluating street conditions.
“We’re actively working on this project,” he said.
Crosswalks and stop signs will be discussed with the city’s Transportation Department.
Members of LJSA conducted an “extensive walkthrough” a few years ago with a Transportation Department official, LJSA member Janie Emerson said, during which stop sign and crosswalk placements were planned.
“We really need to be part of the process of that,” she said.
Barhoumi indicated the city would be open to similar input for this project.
“We understand that it is something the community has been looking forward to for quite some time,” he said.
