In the summer of 2024, nearly a dozen residents spent three weekends cutting back overgrown plants along La Costa Avenue. When they finished, a dirt footpath ran beside the busy street. As The Coast News reported, the City had already funded the path's design, but construction money hadn't come through. The resident who led the clearing told the paper, "We can't walk as we want down to the beach."
The City scheduled construction of the official version of that path to begin Monday, October 26. A few hundred yards west, the other half of the fix is still a work zone. Leucadia Streetscape Segment C on North Coast Highway 101 started in March 2024 and is in its final months. Both projects end at the same corner, and this winter is the only stretch when both are under construction at once. If you walk, ride or drive through north Leucadia, that overlap shapes your routes between now and spring.
Where one project stops and the next one starts
Segment C covers the 101 from Jupiter Street north to La Costa Avenue. The plan includes wider sidewalks, marked bike lanes, roundabouts at Jupiter Street and Moorgate Road, new streetlights, a pedestrian signal at Avocado Street, benches, bike racks and hundreds of new trees.
The La Costa Avenue Pedestrian Path picks up where the 101 work leaves off. It runs from the east end of the LOSSAN Corridor rail bridge to the southbound I-5 on-ramp and the north end of North Vulcan Avenue. The City's project page lists what gets built:
- About half a mile of 4-foot-wide decomposed granite path along the south side of La Costa Avenue
- A buffered bike lane
- 15 new ADA-compliant curb ramps
- Seven replaced driveways and four replaced street crossings
- About 135 feet of new curb, gutter and sidewalk on North Vulcan Avenue. It links sidewalk built by a nearby development to the Vulcan and La Costa intersection.
That last item is short, but it fills the gap at the exact intersection where the 2024 complaints were loudest. Part of the cost of that Vulcan Avenue frontage comes from $29,300 paid by the owner of the Triton Encinitas Apartments at 1967 North Vulcan Avenue as a condition of that development.
The two projects differ hugely in size. The Coast News puts Segment C at about $32 million. The La Costa path's construction contract went to Prestige Prime Engineering for $1,069,232, and the City estimates the full construction phase, including management and inspection, at $1,326,528. Most of that is covered by a $1,197,238 grant from SANDAG's Smart Growth Incentive Program, which the SANDAG board approved on December 12, 2025.
Two schedules that were never set together
The overlap happened because of delays, not planning. Here is how each timeline moved:
- June 21, 2023. The City Council funds design of the La Costa path during the FY24 budget process.
- March 2024. Segment C construction begins on the 101. According to The Coast News, the original target was summer 2025.
- Later in Segment C. The Council adds a new storm drain system to the project. Director of Engineering Dan Nutter told The Coast News this added about a year and a half to the timeline.
- July 2026. The City's expected completion date for Segment C is October, per The Coast News.
- August 26, 2026. The Council authorizes the La Costa path construction contract.
- September 17, 2026. The City's Segment C status page updates the estimate to "late Fall 2026."
- October 26, 2026. La Costa path construction is scheduled to begin and to run through spring 2027.
If Segment C had finished in summer 2025 as first planned, the 101 side would have been open for more than a year before anyone broke ground on La Costa. Adding the drainage work pushed the end of one project into the start of the other.
The La Costa schedule is also shorter than it looks. The contract allows 65 working days for the base work, about 13 weeks of weekdays. A 90-day plant-establishment period has to begin within those working days.
The 101 side this fall
The City's July 14 Streetscape update gave the clearest picture of the 101 so far. Northbound traffic was running on new pavement from Jupiter Street to Moorgate Road, through the east side of both roundabouts, which had been finished for a few months. The northbound left-turn and U-turn lane at La Costa Avenue was open. Work on the west side, along with roundabout construction, was scheduled to continue through the summer. Parking was available in the new parking pods on the east side.
By September 17, all the large storm drain pipe was in the ground. Crews were still working on water and drainage connections between Jupiter Street and La Costa Avenue, and building new curb, gutter, sidewalk, a bus pad, a bus shelter pad and driveways on the west side of the highway. The City said to expect intermittent lane shifts and that driveways and businesses would stay accessible. The September update didn't say whether the Avocado Street signal, final bike lane striping or the tree planting were done, so for now those are still to come.
The finished segment is meant to solve a problem the businesses along this stretch have described clearly. The owner of Leucadia Cyclery, near Avocado Street, told The Coast News that pedestrians in front of his shop had only a strip of broken asphalt to walk on:
"There are cars going 30-35 miles per hour about 24 inches away from people walking their dogs."
In the same report, Leucadia 101 MainStreet Association executive director Stacy Reddell said the 20 businesses she surveyed saw sales fall an average of 25% to 40% over the previous year. The owner of Leucadia Donut Shoppe said many northbound customers had to drive on to La Costa Avenue to make a U-turn before they could reach his shop. That makes the La Costa intersection important for more than walkers. Until the 101 work is finished, it's the main turnaround for drivers heading to the shops along this stretch.
The La Costa side, weekdays only
Work on La Costa Avenue generally runs Monday through Friday, 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. The City doesn't expect any road closures but warns of construction noise and temporary traffic delays. Pedestrian access through the work area will be blocked during some phases, and the City asks people to use other routes when that happens.
Weekday hours matter because of where this corridor goes. The Coast News described this stretch of La Costa as the route residents use to walk or bike to nearby neighborhoods and to South Ponto Beach. Here's how the main stops along it fit with the work schedule:
- South Ponto Beach. The west end of the walk. The Leucadia resident quoted in 2024 described walking this road to the surf there a few times a week. Weekend walks to the beach fall outside the posted work hours.
- Anderson's La Costa Nursery. The Coast News photographed the planned path's route on the stretch of La Costa near the nursery. The nursery lists hours of 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, so a weekday visit will overlap with active construction.
- Batiquitos Lagoon. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife lists public trail access at the end of Gabbiano Lane, along with hiking trails and a nearby nature center.
During the construction phases, the dirt shoulder residents cleared by hand in 2024 may be fenced off at times. Once the work is finished, that shoulder will be the decomposed granite path, with a buffered bike lane beside it.
The stretch of shops in between
The section of the 101 just south of La Costa has carried most of the disruption, and it's where the end of construction will show first. The Coast News's July 30 reporting found these businesses open and serving customers: Leucadia Cyclery near Avocado Street, The Leucadian Bar, Leucadia Donut Shoppe, the walk-up window at Sip-N-Sea, and Surfhouse Hotel with its cafe, Coffee Coffee. The City's own project page asks people to support Leucadia businesses while the work continues.
The holiday shopping events this year are on other stretches of the 101. The Downtown Encinitas Holiday Street Fair is Sunday, November 22, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Small Business Saturday falls on November 28 in both Downtown Encinitas and Cardiff. The Cardiff 101 Holiday Passport offers discounts at more than 20 businesses from November 28 through January 31, 2027. For north Leucadia this season, the useful details are on the 101 itself: the open left-turn and U-turn lane at La Costa Avenue, and the parking pods on the east side of the finished roadway.
The City posts Segment C updates on its North Coast Highway 101 Projects page, and you can reach the outreach team at [email protected] or 760-512-3800. La Costa path updates go on the project page, which the City last updated on October 21.
If you own property along North Coast Highway 101 or La Costa Avenue and are planning your own renovation or sale this winter, the timing of your work against the City's matters, from crew access to curb appeal to photo days. Scott Warren has spent four decades sequencing construction, and Warren Molina can help you plan around both schedules. Request a private consultation.
