Beginning next Monday, construction on the southbound Highway 101 on-ramp on Cathedral Oaks Road in Goleta will force motorists to choose another route onto the freeway. There will also be sporadic closures of the ramp through this week, but these closures will help ensure the project is finished ahead of schedule, said the City of Goleta’s Rosemarie Gaglione in a press release.
The closure is part of the Cathedral Oaks Bridge Replacement Project, a four- to six-month long construction plan that is meant to replace the overcrossing at Winchester Canyon Road with one that is more directly aligned with Cathedral Oaks Road, Gaglione said. “The existing overcrossing is on a skew with Highway 101,” she explained. “The new overcrossing will align with Cathedral Oaks Road, go directly over the highway and the railroad and create a new intersection with Hollister Avenue.”
The closure of the on-ramp is expected to last four to six weeks, Gaglione said, a week shorter than what the contractor originally projected. “The contractor could have opted to wait until they had a ‘hard closure’ of the ramp, but recognizing that the public will be inconvenienced each week that the ramp is closed, they are trying to limit that inconvenience,” Gaglione said.
Motorists should expect delays at the Storke Road on-ramp, Gaglione said, particularly during the morning commute hours.