The late season rains that most recently swept across the region have been taking a toll on traffic, but there is better news on roads less traveled.

The lack of prolonged wet weather has allowed crews to make good progress on a backlog of storm-ravaged roads in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Signs on Schulties Road near the summit still abound in the Santa Cruz Mountains, but despite recent rains that caused a few new slides, the region is better off than it was this time a year ago, says Jason Hoppin with Santa Cruz County Public Works.

“Highway 17 was closed at this point, Highway 35 was missing a chunk about the size of Rhode Island, Soquel-San Jose Road, which carries thousands of people every day was down, we had to relocate an elementary school,” said Hoppin.

Three presidential disaster declarations helped the county.

Tackle those largest projects first but there are still literally hundreds of slides and slip-outs that are awaiting funding and permits. 

Repairs to Busy Bear Creek are underway but many projects will take years to complete.

“We had about $120 million in damage at over 200 different sites around the mountains, fast forward to now and we’ve done about $20 million in repairs but we’ve got a long ways to go and it could take several years to catch up,” said Hoppin.

Hoppin said Schulties Road, near the summit, is an example of how vulnerable many mountain roads are to heavy winter rains.

But the rains have been light this year and that has allowed crews to work on projects that might otherwise have been shut down for the winter.

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