Santa Barbara Approves $11M Face-Lift for State Street Undercrossing

The State Street undercrossing connecting downtown and the waterfront will get an $11 million face-lift, featuring the trademark colorful twist of Santa Barbara architect Jeff Shelton, after the project gained unanimous support from the City Council on Tuesday.

Councilmember Mike Jordan called the design a “generational project” that will be here “50 years or 100 years from now and still benefiting the community.”

The project has been in the making for years as part of the city’s Vision Zero initiative to address collisions between vehicles and pedestrians or cyclists in high-traffic areas. Supervising Transportation Planner Jessica Grant explained during the council meeting that the State Street undercrossing between Gutierrez and Yanonali had “one of the highest concentrations of pedestrian- and bicycle-related collisions” in the city, and that the changes would rebalance the space by widening the sidewalks from eight to 15 feet and condensing vehicle traffic into one lane on either side with protected bike lanes throughout.