Carlsbad to build additional 1-mile segment of Coastal Rail Trail

Construction is expected to start later this year and be completed in about seven months on an additional one-mile segment of the Coastal Rail Trail between Palomar Airport Road and the Poinsettia Coaster Station in Carlsbad.

“This city project will beautify and improve the middle stretch of Avenida Encinas, providing a uniform street width, complete street improvements, utility undergrounding and landscaping,” said Carlsbad Senior Planner Scott Donnell.

“Large gaps in the bike lanes and sidewalk systems will be completed, and mid-block pedestrian crossings with flashing beacons will be added,” Donnell said, in a recent presentation to the Carlsbad Planning Commission.

Avenida Encinas is a neighborhood street about four miles long. The segment of the street to be improved for the trail is between Palomar Airport Road and the Poinsettia Coaster Station.

The construction will include a retaining wall between the street and the eastern side of the railroad, Donnell said. The trail is about 1,000 feet from the coastline.

Longer-term plans call for the trail to continue south on Encinas Avenue until it links up with Carlsbad Boulevard, also known as Coast Highway 101, where it will connect with the trail in Encinitas.

The Coastal Rail Trail idea emerged in the 1990s as a plan for a 42-mile hiking and biking trail along the railroad tracks between the Oceanside Transit Center and the Santa Fe Depot in downtown San Diego.

Since then each city along the route has completed portions of the trail. However, challenges such as the creeks and coastal lagoons have slowed progress and required a few segments to be routed away from the rails and onto nearby surface streets.

The scenic coastal route is one of the most popular in San Diego County for joggers, cyclists and sightseers.

More athletic cyclists, often traveling in packs, tend to avoid the rail trail with its pedestrians and people pushing strollers. Instead, the Lycra-clad crowd sticks to the faster-paced coastal highway.

Carlsbad has a stand-alone piece of the rail trail along the eastern side of the tracks between Tamarack and Oak avenues, with easy access to the downtown Village and Barrio neighborhoods.

Another unfinished piece of the trail in Carlsbad will eventually go between Tamarack Avenue and Cannon Road. The obstacle there has been the Agua Hedionda Lagoon that will require a separate bridge for which so far there’s no construction funding.

Oceanside completed a piece of the rail trail from Oceanside Boulevard to Wisconsin Avenue in 2014.

Construction will start this year on Oceanside’s final piece of the trail, a half-mile segment from Oceanside Boulevard south through Buccaneer Park to a connection at South Myers Street.

The project includes the installation of a prefabricated, steel-truss bridge for cyclists and pedestrians beside the railroad bridge across Loma Alta Creek in the park. The need for a separate bridge is the main reason Oceanside’s last segment remains incomplete. Construction, largely covered by grant money, is expected to cost about $14 million.

Solana Beach completed a 1.7-mile, meandering section of the trail lined with landscaping, sculptures and creative archways about 20 years ago.

Earlier this month, the Solana Beach City Council formally accepted a $300,000 state grant for the construction of a final piece in that city that will extend the trail from its end at Ocean Street north to the southern boundary of Encinitas. The total cost there is a little more than $1 million. Construction is expected in 2027.

“This project will create a smoother and safer transition into the protected bike lane in Encinitas,” state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, said in a Jan. 22 announcement of the grant.

Encinitas has a 1.3-mile segment of the trail from Chesterfield Drive to Santa Fe Drive that opened to the public in 2019. Additional pieces in Encinitas also are planned.