San Elijo Road in Rancho Santa Fe next on county’s road ‘improvement’ list

Arnold Keene, the Rancho Santa Fe Association’s field operations manager, said the question he hears most often from the membership is: “When is my road getting paved?”

Keene provided an update to the board on road maintenance at the Feb. 4 meeting and a tentative answer to those questions: Hopefully soon.

As Keene explained, the county oversees about 60 miles of roads in the Covenant and is responsible for road surfaces, striping, traffic signs, culvert maintenance, erosion control and emergency road services, such as helping to clear roadways and place barricades on closed roads after the recent storms knocked down about 70 mature trees in the Covenant.

The Association is in charge of maintenance of landscape along the roadside.

Keene said the county maintains a list of countywide road projects and prioritizes repairs when funding becomes available — most funding comes from the California gas tax. The list is updated every October and all the requests for county work on Covenant road improvements need to be recommendations from the San Dieguito Planning Group.

Over the last five years, funding has been strong for road improvements and 11 Covenant roads have benefited, including significant resurfacing of El Camino Del Norte and new curbs and gutters at the intersection of La Granada and Avenida de Acacias. Last summer, Keene said the “absolutely terrible” Las Colinas road was repaved and is now a well-done road.

The next major project is San Elijo between El Montevideo and La Granada, which Keene said is in terrible condition. The county will need to do repaving, road and culvert repair and shoulder work. The County Board of Supervisors is expected to approve the project in early February with construction set to begin in mid-to-late summer.

“Our goal is to ensure that Rancho Santa Fe is a part of the county’s future priorities,” Keene said, noting they have built a good partnership with the San Dieguito Planning Group and share many of the same road maintenance priorities. “I feel confident that (the planning group) has our best interests in mind and we’ll continue to get roads fixed and paved as we move forward.”