Jefferson Street Closing to Traffic for Months for Sewer Project

Jefferson Street between Marron Road and Las Flores will be closed to through traffic starting Wednesday, Jan. 11, through June for construction on a new sewage pipe near the Buena Vista Lagoon. Residents in the affected area will be allowed to come and go, and Hosp Grove Park and trails will remain accessible. 

Water and sewer services are not expected to be affected by the construction.  To avoid the busiest commuter times, most construction will take place between the hours of 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.  Bike lanes and pedestrian access will be affected off and on during construction.

Construction will not affect the route of the Jan. 22.

City staff remind the public to drive carefully around the construction area and take alternate routes, when possible, to avoid traffic delays. Road construction signs will be posted around the construction area.

The road and lane closures are necessary to allow construction workers to install two new 4,200-feet-long pipes from the Buena Vista lift station (near the intersection of Jefferson Street and Marron Road)  to just east of I-5.  In 2007 the pipeline broke causing a sewage spill. Although crews repaired the pipe, an evaluation of the pipe’s condition found that it needed to be replaced.

The section of pipeline that failed in 2007 will be abandoned in place and replaced with two parallel 24-inch pipes constructed within the roadway. One will be used as a sewer force main, which uses pressure to move the water and sewage. The other will be used when rain causes excess flows and as a backup sewer main, further protecting the Buena Vista Lagoon.

The pipeline is part of the Vista/Carlsbad interceptor sewer system, which carries wastewater from Vista and Carlsbad to the Encina Water Pollution Control Facility on Avenida Encinas in Carlsbad. The system is jointly owned by the cities of Carlsbad and Vista. 

Nearly all the pipe will be placed beneath Jefferson Street, with the exception of a 125-foot segment that will be suspended from the bridge over Buena Vista Creek. 

The project contractor is Escondido-based CCL Contracting, Inc.

Carlsbad and Vista will share the project’s $4.4 million cost, based on their portions of the pipe’s ownership, with Vista paying 90 percent and Carlsbad the remainder. 

A construction information line and email address have been set up to answer questions about the project. Please call 760-602-4678 or email transportation@carlsbadca.gov.

For more information about the project and to sign up for email notifications about construction activity, visit the city’s website carlsbadca.gov/construction. 

–Press Release by City of Carlsbad