The Lomas Santa Fe Rebuild Keeps Business Hours

Orange cones went up on Lomas Santa Fe Drive east of I-5 on Tuesday, Oct. 13. They mark the start of the Lomas Santa Fe Corridor–East Improvements Project, which rebuilds the road from Santa Helena Drive to Highland Drive. In the first weeks, the City of Solana Beach said crews would set up signs and traffic control, survey the road, and dig small test holes to find water, gas and electrical lines before heavier work begins. The City expects to finish in Fall 2027.

A year of construction on the road between the freeway and Rancho Santa Fe sounds like a year of lost afternoons. The work is limited to weekday daytime hours, it stops for the town's busiest stretches of the calendar, and at least one lane in each direction stays open throughout. For most people who use this road, the time of day matters more than the route.

The hours the City has committed to

The City lists work hours of 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, with no work on city holidays. The project page also says there will be no construction during the Del Mar Fair or around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

Those pauses explain why the finish date sits so far out. The contractor estimated 220 working days for the job, which the City's May 27, 2026 staff report describes as 44 weeks, or about 11 months. Counted on a calendar that leaves out holidays and the fair, 44 working weeks starting in mid-October run well into 2027. The City's earlier materials, including that staff report and the project flyer, forecast completion in late summer 2027. The current project page now says Fall 2027.

At the Council's direction, the work goes to Tri-Group Construction and Development, Inc., under a $6,740,708 construction contract plus a $675,000 contingency. Kleinfelder is the City's engineering and construction management firm and will keep a construction manager on site full time, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The order of the work

The City says the work moves from east to west, so it starts near Highland Drive and heads toward Santa Helena. City Engineer Austin Frisby described the sequence to the Union-Tribune:

1. Raised medians down the center of the road.
2. A new sidewalk on the south side of Lomas Santa Fe.
3. Roadway work on the north side, including a 0.93-mile multi-use trail that the Union-Tribune compared to the Coastal Rail Trail.

The City has confirmed the project will be built in three phases but has not published start and end dates for each one. The project page is where those updates will appear, and the City offers email alerts through a sign-up link on that page.

Where the friction lands

Lane counts are the commitment that shapes daily driving. "We're not closing any roads, we'll always have a lane open in each direction at all times," Greg Gomez, Kleinfelder's project manager, told the Union-Tribune. The road normally carries two lanes each way. During weekday work hours, some stretches will drop to one, and the City's FAQ warns of temporary lane closures, traffic control and delays.

A few groups will feel it more directly:

• Via Mil Cumbres. During two brief work phases, residents of the Via Mil Cumbres community will be detoured to one of two available exit routes, the Union-Tribune reported.
• Parallel streets. Public comment to the Council included concern about long delays and drivers cutting through neighborhood streets such as Sun Valley Road, per the same report.
• Cyclists and pedestrians. The City says signed detours may appear in active work areas. When the contract was approved, a council member asked that bike routes be clearly marked during construction, The Coast News reported.
• Homes and businesses along the stretch. The City says it will keep access open whenever possible and give advance notice of any temporary restrictions to the extent it can.

For anything specific to a driveway or a block, the project helpline is (858) 723-8511 and the project email is [email protected].

The Plaza end sits just outside the zone

Lomas Santa Fe Plaza, at 905 to 993 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, is where many trips on this road end. The City's corridor planning documents treat the stretch from Santa Helena to the Plaza shopping center driveway as its own focus area, which puts the Plaza just west of where the East project begins. Drivers coming from the I-5 side reach the center without entering the work zone. Drivers coming from the Highland and Sun Valley side pass through it on the way.

The Plaza's directory lists Vons, HomeGoods, Big 5 Sporting Goods, Jersey Mike's, Starbucks, Samurai Japanese Restaurant and North Coast Repertory Theatre, among others. Colosseo Cucina Italiana is at 945 Lomas Santa Fe Drive. The center lists Dave's Hot Chicken as now open and BMO as coming soon.

This is where the weekday work window matters most. A grocery run before 8 a.m., an early dinner at Colosseo, or a weekend errand at HomeGoods all fall outside scheduled work hours. A matinee or evening show at North Coast Repertory Theatre does too. Its fall season continues with "The Cottage," running October 28 through November 22, and "How to Write a Holiday," running December 16 through 27, 2026. The holiday show's run overlaps with the period around Christmas when the City has said no construction will take place.

West of the freeway, the Solana Beach Fire Department will host an open house at 500 Lomas Santa Fe Drive on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with station tours, safety activities and live music. The City encourages costumes.

What arrives in 2027

All this work produces a road that keeps its car capacity and adds room for everyone else. The finished layout keeps two travel lanes in each direction and adds Class II bike lanes both ways, raised medians planted with native drought-tolerant landscaping, a north-side multi-use path and a south-side sidewalk. The plans also include a decorative retaining wall near Santa Helena and Las Banderas, upgraded signalized intersections, new seating areas, trash and recycling bins, ADA-compliant curb ramps, and storm drain and water-quality improvements. The May 2026 Council presentation notes that the Council had earlier directed staff to keep four travel lanes and drop roundabouts from the plan.

Most of the money comes from outside the city budget. The City says the project is primarily funded by a $7 million Community Project Funding grant secured through Congressman Mike Levin, with the rest from Measure S and Transportation Impact Fee funds. The City lists the project cost as $7.5 million. The FAQ also calls it the first phase of the broader Lomas Santa Fe Corridor Improvements, a study area that runs west to Sierra Avenue.

Douglas Alden, chair of BikeWalkSolana, has worked on the project since 2017. "It's going to be a little bit of pain but a lot to gain," he told the Union-Tribune. City Manager Alyssa Muto described the finished road in the same report as "a wonderful roadway with two lanes in each direction, some beautiful medians, some bike lanes and a lovely multi-use path with vegetation."

Until then, the City's project page at cityofsolanabeach.ca.gov/LSFE is the place to check each week for lane changes. The next scheduled pause is around Thanksgiving.

If you own a home along Lomas Santa Fe or in the neighborhoods off it and are thinking about timing a sale or a purchase around the construction calendar, Maxine & Marti Gellens can walk you through how buyers are reading the corridor this year. Contact Us whenever it suits your schedule.