Santa Cruz County's new safety plan counted ten crashes from 2019 through 2023 on the stretch of Empire Grade between Heller Drive and Fuel Break Road. Nine of them were head-on. Anyone in Bonny Doon who drives down to UCSC's West Entrance or into town takes this road, and that one number explains the county's whole plan for it. The first fixes go after drivers drifting across the centerline on curves. The plan lists more expensive work too, but that work is not part of the dollar figure Bonny Doon has been hearing.
That figure is about $177,000, from Third District Supervisor Justin Cummings's update in the Rural Bonny Doon Association's Highlander newsletter for October through December. If you read it next to the county's own project sheet, you can see exactly which items that money covers.
Empire Grade Is One of Six Road Segments Studied Countywide
The Santa Cruz County Safety Action Plan is dated April 2026. It covers unincorporated Santa Cruz County plus Scotts Valley and Watsonville. It names six roadway segments for detailed study:
- Holohan Road
- Lakeview Road
- Empire Grade
- Mt Hermon Road
- Graham Hill Road
- Felton Empire Road, from Krazy Acre Lane to Empire Grade
According to the plan, Empire Grade became a study corridor "based on a review of crash data, coordination with the stakeholder group, and public comments." Two of the six segments touch Bonny Doon: the drive down toward Santa Cruz and the road over to Felton.
Citizen Portal reported that the Board of Supervisors adopted the plan unanimously on May 19, 2026. The board also asked the county's Community Development and Infrastructure department to come back during budget hearings with options for paying the local match on near-term grants.
This plan is separate from the Rural Highways Safety Plan run by the Regional Transportation Commission. That one covers Highways 1, 9, 236, 35, 129 and 152. Empire Grade is a county road, so anything planned for it comes from the county's document.
Nine of Ten Crashes Were Head-On
Here is the full crash record on the Empire Grade project sheet for 2019 through 2023:
| Crash detail, Heller Dr to Fuel Break Rd | Count |
|---|---|
| Total crashes | 10 |
| Head-on | 9 |
| Overturned | 1 |
| Severe injury | 2 |
| Other visible injury | 5 |
| Complaint of pain | 3 |
| Fatal | 0 |
| In dark conditions | 5 |
| On wet pavement | 1 |
| Involving a pedestrian or bicycle | 0 |
The record shows no broadside crashes, no rear-end crashes and no sideswipes. Most of the crashes on this stretch follow one pattern: a car crosses into the oncoming lane, often on a curve, and half the time after dark. Every item in the county's first package targets that pattern.
What the $177,000 Covers
The project sheet costs out each countermeasure in 2025 dollars. It also gives each one a benefit-cost ratio, which compares projected crash-reduction value with cost.
| Countermeasure | Quantity | Cost | Benefit-cost ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Centerline rumble strips | 1.3 miles | $99,840 | 29.1 |
| Chevron signs on curves | 12 signs | $9,000 | 644.5 |
| Speed feedback signs | 3 signs | $67,800 | 117.6 |
| High-friction surface on curves | 7,300 sq. yd. | $540,200 | 8.1 |
| Bike pullouts on curves | 18 pullouts | $630,000 | not calculated |
The rumble strips, chevrons and feedback signs add up to $176,640. That matches the "about $177,000" in Cummings's newsletter update, which lists those same three items. In other words, the figure being discussed in Bonny Doon covers only the paint-and-signage package: grooves down the centerline, arrows marking the curves, and three signs that show drivers their speed.
The chevron signs cost $9,000 for all twelve. At 644.5, they also have the highest benefit-cost ratio on the sheet. The plan's own subtotal for this segment is $108,840, which is the rumble strips plus the chevrons. With a 30% contingency it comes to $141,492. The supervisor's figure adds the feedback signs and leaves out the contingency. So depending on which items are included, the near-term package falls somewhere between about $109,000 and $177,000.
The Two Biggest Items Are Outside That Figure
The high-friction pavement and the bike pullouts would cost $1,170,200 together. That's more than six times the $177,000 package.
The bike pullouts matter most to people who ride lower Empire Grade. The county's early "10% concept" drawings for the road, dated April 2026, show what they could look like. Pullouts are drawn into the curves, with cut and fill retaining walls up to five feet tall, next to a curve speed feedback sign and new rumble strips. The section is labeled with the Waldorf School. The project sheet lists the pullouts without a benefit-cost ratio, and its $108,840 subtotal leaves out both the pullouts and the high-friction surface.
Ten percent concept drawings are early sketches, not construction plans. They show where the county could take the corridor if money becomes available. The near-term package is the inexpensive part of that picture.
Who Pays, and How
Even the smaller package isn't funded yet. Cummings writes that county staff are "working to include these projects in state and/or federal grant proposals." Grants of that kind would cover most of the cost, but the county would still owe a 20% local share, which he puts at "roughly $35,000." He says he plans to pay that share from District 3's Measure K funds.
Measure K is the half-cent sales tax that applies in unincorporated Santa Cruz County. Santa Cruz Local's guide to the measure explains that the money goes into the county's General Fund and can legally be spent on any county purpose. The road-repair priorities listed in the ballot language don't bind how it's spent. In practice, the county's FY 2025–26 budget included up to $2 million from the Measure K district sales tax for road and drainage maintenance. The budget describes the district allocations as money used within, and for the benefit of, the unincorporated areas.
That leaves the Empire Grade package resting on three things: a grant the county is preparing to seek, a local match the supervisor intends to cover, and a plan the board has adopted.
A Second Fix, Up the Hill at Pine Flat and Ice Cream Grade
The same Highlander issue carries a separate proposal from County Public Works for the Pine Flat Road and Ice Cream Grade intersection next to Bonny Doon Elementary. A resident raised concerns about left turns there. In a post on the Bonny Doon Union Elementary School District site, shared on behalf of Supervisor Cummings's office, the county says Public Works evaluated those concerns and proposed removing trees to improve sight distance.
Jeff de los Santos, a Senior Civil Engineer who oversees the county's Traffic Engineering and Development Review Section, presented the proposal at the RBDA public meeting on October 28. The meeting was held in the school's multipurpose room and on Zoom, and residents could see the alternatives, findings and engineering recommendations and comment on them. Right now the tree removal is a proposal that has gone out for comment.
Like the Empire Grade package, the Pine Flat proposal aims at one specific problem, in this case a left turn with a short view of oncoming cars, and starts with an inexpensive fix.
Where Residents Can Weigh In
The RBDA usually holds its public meetings on the second Wednesday of January, April, July and November. This fall it replaced the November public meeting with a members-only business meeting on November 4. The next public meeting is in January 2027, and the board election takes place there. The association's board can be reached at [email protected]. For questions about county projects in the district, Supervisor Cummings's office lists Trina Barton as a contact at [email protected].
The Empire Grade project sheet also names a county contact, Russell Chen, at [email protected]. If you drive lower Empire Grade every day, the project sheet for your commute is in the county's public plan. It shows the crash counts and the cost of each item, and it marks which item would come first.
We pay attention to road projects like this because they change daily life in Bonny Doon well before they show up anywhere else. If you'd like to talk through what's coming to your corner of the mountain, or what your own place is worth today, The Portola Group is glad to help. Start by getting your instant home valuation.
