The Coastal Rail Trail is a planned continuous bike route that would extend roughly 44 miles from Oceanside to Santa Fe Depot in Downtown San Diego.
The Encinitas segment would run from E Street to Chesterfield Drive, connecting community hotspots such as the Downtown Encinitas COASTER station, Swamis Seaside Park, Cardiff State Beach, and Glen Park.
The San Diego County Bicycle Coalition supports a Class I bike facility (separate bike path) along the proposed route for the Encinitas segment of the Coastal Rail Trail.
History
Whereas the Encinitas segment was initially proposed in 2014, the entire Coastal Rail Trail project has been in development since the 1990’s.
As of March, 2015, the project may be forced to take a detour from the rail line to Encinitas roadways, which would eliminate at least one lane of traffic along Coast Highway 101. Chris Carterette, a transportation planner for the San Diego Association of Governments who is managing the Encinitas portion of the project explained that issues arose when it was understood that this segment of the bikeway would cost approximately $9 million, far exceeding the allocated $5.1 million.
The increased expense is associated with projections found in an engineering report, which stated that a 2,000-foot-long wall would need to be installed to stabilize the bluffs in order to make the path usable.
