The crews working overnight at Cliff Drive and Meigs Road are expected to be gone by early November. The City scheduled them from 8:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. starting August 31. It said the night hours were chosen "to reduce impacts to businesses and daytime traffic," and it expects the work to finish by early November, weather and field conditions permitting.
Once the cones are cleared from that intersection, the Mesa still has years of planned work ahead. The Cliff Drive Watermain Replacement is the opening step in a sequence. The City's own schedules show three projects starting one after another: a new water main, then a separated walking and biking path the full length of Cliff Drive, then a $130 million replacement of the Vic Trace Reservoir in Alta Mesa. On current plans the last of these runs until 2031.
On a single timeline, the three projects put the Mesa's main road and the neighborhood above it into street work for several years. The City has scheduled the early phases one after another, and its own dates show the later two projects overlapping.
Why the water main had to go first
The City first expected the water-main replacement to be done in summer 2026. The August notice moved the end of the Meigs intersection work to early November.
That date matters more than it might seem, because the next project is waiting on it. In a March 24, 2026 update on the Cliff Drive Vision Zero final design, the City said it planned to advertise the construction contract in fall 2026 and begin construction in spring 2027, "after the water main replacement." The pipe goes in under the road first. The path and crossings are built on top of it afterward.
Here is the order as the City's published schedules lay it out today. Every date below is a plan, and the City says its timelines can change.
| Phase | What happens | City's stated timing |
|---|---|---|
| Watermain night work | Cliff Drive and Meigs Road intersection, 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. | August 31 to early November 2026 |
| Vision Zero bid | Construction contract advertised | Fall 2026 |
| Vision Zero construction | Separated path, crossings, signals | Anticipated spring 2027 |
| SCE utility undergrounding | Salida del Sol to San Rafael Avenue | Fall 2027 to early 2028 |
| Vic Trace preconstruction | Reservoir replacement prep | Winter 2027 to spring 2028 |
| Vic Trace construction | Two new buried tanks, pipelines | Spring 2028 to 2031 |
| Vision Zero ribbon cutting | Project opening | 2029 |
As of the research for this post, no Vision Zero bid listing or construction contract award from after March had turned up. The spring 2027 start is still the City's plan, not a scheduled start date.
What the path actually puts on Cliff Drive
Vision Zero covers about three miles, from Arroyo Burro County Park to Castillo Street. The City describes it as a separated path for all ages and abilities, meant to connect schools, Santa Barbara City College, parks, services and retail along the way.
The details are what will show up on familiar walks and errands. According to the City's project page, the plan includes:
- 14 new crosswalks and upgrades to 4 existing ones
- 4 new traffic signals
- A new crossing at Salida del Sol
- Wider sidewalks on Flora Vista and Loma Alta
- Curb extensions at Flora Vista and Red Rose, plus sidewalk infill on Red Rose
- Crossing treatments that include refuge islands, rectangular rapid flashing beacons, lighting and high-visibility markings
The two sources give different dollar figures, and both are accurate. The City reports $27 million in California Active Transportation Program funding for final design and construction. The SB Mesa Neighborhood Association calls Vision Zero a $34 million project. One number is the state grant and the other is the association's figure for the whole project, so they measure different things.
Even within Vision Zero, the work comes in steps. Southern California Edison plans to move overhead utilities underground between Salida del Sol and San Rafael Avenue in fall 2027 through early 2028. Path work will go ahead on other segments in the meantime, and final paving on that stretch will wait until the utility work is done. On that piece of Cliff Drive, the road could be dug up for utilities after path construction has started elsewhere and before it gets its final surface.
The reservoir work above Cliff Drive
The third project is the largest. It sits up the hill in Alta Mesa, away from the commercial strip. The Vic Trace Reservoir was built in 1956. It is a partially buried, 10-million-gallon drinking-water reservoir, and the City says it serves about 60,000 people, or nearly 70% of Santa Barbara. It is named for Victor "Vic" Trace, the City's water superintendent from 1900 to 1934.
The plan replaces the single basin with two fully buried five-million-gallon reservoirs on the same site, along with a new facility to replace the existing Valve Building. It also includes pipeline work on La Coronilla, Dolores Drive and Ricardo Drive. The City's June 2026 FAQ puts the current cost estimate at $130 million, with construction from spring 2028 to 2031.
For the streets nearest the site, the same FAQ says:
- Construction trucks will likely use Dolores Drive, but a detailed route plan has not been written yet
- Parking restrictions for truck traffic and pipeline work are not expected until 2028
- Typical work hours are weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with some critical work outside those hours
- Temporary water outages may be needed, with notice ahead of time
The public review period for the Draft Environmental Impact Report ran from June 8 to July 30, 2026.
Vic Trace construction is planned to begin in 2028, and the Vision Zero ribbon cutting is set for 2029, so the two projects could overlap for a while. The City addresses this directly in its FAQ:
"Staff from each of the project teams continue to work closely with one another to ensure that the scope of work, traffic impacts, and schedules minimize compounding impacts for the surrounding community during construction."
Each project team will also study how its construction affects local traffic and use those findings to plan ways to reduce the impact.
The corner where all of it starts
The intersection under the night work is the Mesa's everyday center. Lazy Acres Market is at 302 Meigs Road. Mesa Café serves breakfast and lunch at 1972 Cliff Drive and says on its own site that it has remodeled its dining room. In December 2025, Noozhawk reported that Wingstop had opened a Mesa location at 1964 Cliff Drive.
A little to the east, three restaurants were already planning their own changes to the edge of Cliff Drive before Vision Zero reached final design. In July 2025, Noozhawk reported that Rose Cafe at 1814 Cliff Drive and Alcazar Tapas Bar and Ichiban Sushi, both at 1812 Cliff Drive, had cleared an initial review to replace their temporary outdoor dining setups with permanent parklets. That report described proposals, and no later update on whether the parklets were built turned up. Even so, the restaurants' sidewalk frontage and the planned path both depend on the same strip of Cliff Drive curb.
Scheduling the Meigs work overnight was the City's way of keeping the shops' daytime traffic moving. Construction phasing for Vision Zero has not been announced yet. The City has said it will hold outreach on phasing once a contractor is selected.
Two dates on the calendar before the next phase
The best place to hear about the sequence in person is this Thursday. The SB Mesa Neighborhood Association's Fall Village Hall is on October 15, 2026, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Free Methodist Church, 1435 Cliff Drive. The agenda includes a Vision Zero update from a City planner. It lists questions about when bids go out, where construction starts and when it will be finished. There will also be a Vic Trace update from Public Works on the timeline and what residents can expect during construction. The City has also announced the Vic Trace update on its own news page. The association's agenda also covers the Douglas Family Preserve and progress on the Santa Cruz Overlook at Thousand Steps.
A month later, the neighborhood's front doors open for art rather than construction updates. The Mesa Artists Studio Tour is in its 22nd year and runs November 14 and 15, 2026, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The tour's organizers say the public is welcome at no charge. If the City's estimate holds, the night crews at Meigs will have finished by that weekend. Cliff Drive will be quiet for a short time before the Vision Zero work begins.
If you or a parent on the Mesa are thinking about how several years of street work could affect getting to Lazy Acres, appointments, or the bus stop, it can help to plan ahead with someone who knows the neighborhood. Terri Dimond and the All About Seniors team cover staying-put planning, aging-in-place changes, and timing a move at their community sessions. Attend a Free Senior Seminar to bring your questions.
