Santa Fe Drive Pedestrian Underpass Now Open

T.Y. Lin International (TYLI) announces the opening of the $3.1M Santa Fe Drive Pedestrian Underpass in the City of Encinitas, California. TYLI was retained by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) as the prime engineering consultant for design and construction support. TYLI led a multi-disciplinary team to address all aspects of the project including bike path design, geotechnical engineering, drainage, architecture, landscape architecture, and CEQA environmental document preparation and permit processing.

Located on a popular beach route to the world famous Swamis surf spot, the project is the first of four planned railroad underpasses in the City of Encinitas to provide safe access for pedestrians and bicyclists crossing under the San Diego portion of the Los Angeles-San Diego (LOSSAN) rail corridor tracks.

The LOSSAN rail corridor is a heavily used passenger and goods movement facility accommodating the North County Transit District (NCTD), Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) trains.

The busy rail corridor required an expedited approach to bridge construction. The underpass is a 60’-long, three-span underpass using NCTD’s standard 20” slab girders. The bridge was designed to accommodate construction during a 53-hour track shutdown window.

The project used an integrated context-sensitive design approach. The theme for this site was developed to match the iconic Swamis Beach and the City of Encinitas Highway 101 Corridor Plan. TYLI chose open abutments with slopes to allow for maximum visibility from outside the crossing, providing pedestrians safe access. The openness of the crossing, coupled with the context-sensitive design, resulted in an aesthetically pleasing crossing that encourages pedestrian usage while providing a safe experience.