A dedicated bike path connecting Cayucos and Morro Bay has taken a giant leap forward after County Supervisors agreed to accept a final grant to cover the $12 million price tag.
With millions in hand, work on the so-called “Morro Bay to Cayucos Connector Trail” is imminent, with a projected 2027 start date, according to a County staff report.
Supervisors agreed to allow Parks & Recreation to apply for the $2 million grant from the California Coastal Conservancy, which if approved would complete financing for the connector trail, a separated, paved pathway hugging the bluff along the Chevron Dog Beach and beyond the Hwy 1 traffic safety fence. It’s been close to 20 years in the making, but the hurdles all seem to have been cleared now.
Parks & Rec Director, Tanya Richardson’s report said the latest grant is part of a gumbo-like stew of funding they’ve been able to pull together for the project.
“This State Coastal Conservancy grant,” Richardson said, “is for the remaining $2 million needed to construct the Connector. In 2023, the Department of Parks and Recreation obtained a $7,406,000 Active Transportation Grant to construct the trail; $2,850,000 of State Transportation Improvement Funds is pending approval also for construction of the Connector. The $2 million from this State Coastal Conservancy application, if approved, will provide the remaining funding needed to construct the Connector.”
(Normally, in these cases, staffers have been in contact with granting agencies and are pretty sure if not entirely positive the funding will be approved, before they seek permission to apply from a governing board, so the Supervisor’s vote March 11 was mostly a formality.)
Though this main segment of the connector would span the length of Dog Beach and connect North Point Natural Area in Morro Bay to the end of Studio Drive in Cayucos, existing pathways cross Hwy 1 at the Old Creek Road stoplight, then go up Ocean Boulevard all the way to Norma Rose Park, located below the Morro Bay-Cayucos Cemetery. Richardson said it’s an important addition to the California Coast Trail, and “would complete an important segment in the non-motorized transportation network along Highway 1.”
The Connector was approved last year by the Coastal Commission, whose only real concern was with a long seawall needed for a segment of the bluff on the Morro Bay end to create a path where one currently doesn’t exist.
The bike lane needs four “bridges” to span gaps in the bluff top, plus over a dozen small spans to cross drainage swales in the bluff. The biggest of the hurdles is at Toro Creek.
“The longest over Toro Creek will be 200-feet long,” Elizabeth Kavanaugh, with SLO County Public Works said. “These are the expensive elements of the trail.” Initial design plans show a steel girder bridge over the creek, similar to the one the City put in spanning Morro Creek. That work will need to be coordinated with a Caltrans project to replace the Hwy 1 South Bridge over Toro Creek, which has failing supports and must be replaced.
Ironically, Caltrans recently completed building a new northbound bridge, replacing one that was built with the original Hwy 1 in the 1930s. That bridge was replaced in part to give more space for properly sized bike lanes, which when the Connector Trail is done, might be obsolete for all but the most dedicated cyclists.
The scope of the project includes improvements to the North Point Natural Area — paving the trail that will run up the old Hwy 1 route, now degraded into a gravel path, and wind down to connect with the parking lot.
It also improves the bike path that goes up Beachcomber Drive to Sandalwood Avenue and over to the City’s bike path running through the Cloisters, and behind the high school to Atascadero Road.
On the Cayucos side, improvements will be made at the end of Studio Drive to accommodate more parking and a staircase down to the beach is also planned.
Along the highway, where people park to go down to Dog Beach, the plan is to make improvements there as well.
