\u201cWe started raising questions for this project in 2019, when we formed the Highway 52 Coalition,\u201d Santee Mayor John Minto said. \u201cNow what we have to do is put our nose to the grindstone and get the rest of things done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project, which is the early stage, proposes the addition of managed lanes, addressing bottlenecks and a relocated bike path.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/SUT-L-SR52-IMPROVEMENTS.png\")
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The specific proposals include adding a westbound managed lane from Mast Boulevard to Santo Road; relocating the bike bath to the south side of SR-52; increasing westbound SR-52 from two lanes to three lanes from state Route 125 to Mast Boulevard; and increasing eastbound SR-52 from two lanes to three lanes from Mast Boulevard to east of the San Diego River bridge.<\/p>\n
The environmental planning portion just started and will last through Fall 2028. The designing stage is planned to last about two years, with construction to start in 2031 and reach completion by 2034.<\/p>\n
Caltrans estimated the environmental and design phases will cost $20.5 million. That includes $9.5 million in federal funds, $3 million from the state, $3 million in Transnet funds and $5 million from the City of Santee.<\/p>\n
To kickstart the public scoping period, which will last through January 2026, Caltrans held a meeting at Santee City Hall Thursday.<\/p>\n
Attendees heard about the proposal from project team members and submitted formal comments that were collected as part of the environmental drafting period.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe look at the comments and group them together for commonality,\u201d said Karen Jewel, who is the District 11 Project Corridor Director for Caltrans. \u201cWe want that input and we want to make sure that the project is made with that in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lakeside resident Jessica Duarte said she spends most of her commute to work on the SR-52, which takes around two hours round-trip on a day-to-day basis.<\/p>\n
She described her daily commute as \u201cquite miserable\u201d but said she was glad to see there are steps being taken to improve the traffic congestion.<\/p>\n
Caltrans\u2019 proposed improvements are a \u201cmixed bag,\u201d Duarte said, but she was happy the plans included adding another lane westbound and eastbound.<\/p>\n
Adding a managed lane could help, she continued, but said it depends on the type of road that would be. An HOV or toll road would be something she opposes, but she said she is open to other types of managed roads.<\/p>\n
\u201cA managed lane with a moving barrier would be a great idea, I\u2019ve seen that work on the Coronado bridge and on Interstate 15,\u201d Duarte said. \u201cBut I wonder who will pay for a proposal like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jewel said Caltrans is considering every type of managed lane in their proposal and will make a conclusion based on traffic studies. For example, she said the agency will conduct a truck study to determine if a truck-only lane could allow more space for commuters on the road.<\/p>\n
The plan to add a third lane both westbound and eastbound would have to include widening the bridge near Mast Boulevard, Duarte said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked as I was crossing through that area in the morning, and I thought, \u2018There\u2019s no room to put a third lane here safely,\u2019\u201d Duarte said. \u201cThe majority of accidents on the SR-52 in the morning happen right in that area. If you take away any shoulder space, that only ties up traffic further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Caltrans Transportation Engineer Alexander Wood said the agency is considering a variety of factors in their plan to add another lane, including expanding the bridge.<\/p>\n
Duarte said she is worried about how long it will take to complete the project, considering East County is developing and will continue to in the next 10 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ideas, in theory, are great,\u201d Duarte said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if they solve a lot of the problems, especially if Fanita Ranch is going to be added in Santee.\u201d Fanita Ranch is a proposed 3,000 home development.<\/p>\n
Rod Streeper is a lifelong East County resident who rides his bike on a daily basis. He said the road improvement proposals were \u201ceverything he was hoping it would be\u201d and he was happy that bikers were considered in the planning process.<\/p>\n
\u201cPutting a bike lane in period is always better than not, but if you\u2019re planning a project from scratch, which is what they are doing here,\u201d Streeper said. \u201cThere are low-costs ways of improving it for individual types of commuters, and so we\u2019re just asking that the bikes be considered in that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He spent several minutes writing out his formal requests to Caltrans. He said he asked for the agency to consider installing the safest form of shared lines for bicyclists, such as a paved shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really a testament to this community project working,\u201d Streeper said. \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating, it\u2019s slow, but it\u2019s a necessary process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"East County commuters got their first glimpse of a proposed project to redesign a 6-mile stretch of state…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":444532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,728,50,3549,7264,7289,9656,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-444531","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-top-stories-sdut","16":"tag-uncategorized","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115712452248550916","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}