Manchester Avenue Off-Ramp On I-5 To Close For Construction Work

ENCINITAS, CA — Caltrans and the San Diego Association of Governments will close the southbound Interstate 5 off-ramp to Manchester Avenue Thursday for ongoing construction work.

Work crews will close the ramp overnight from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Friday to reposition concrete barriers on the ramp, realign it and re-stripe it. Southbound I-5 motorists seeking to get off at Manchester Avenue will be detoured to Lomas Santa Fe Drive and re-routed back up northbound I-5 to the remaining open off-ramp at Manchester Avenue.

The closure is one of multiple expected ramp closures at the interchange of I-5 and Manchester Avenue over the next six weeks, part of the San Elijo Lagoon Highway Bridge Replacement Project. The project will add carpool lands on both sides of I-5 over the lagoon and a pedestrian bridge linking the north and south sides of the lagoon.

The project is scheduled to be completed in 2021.

The closure is part of SANDAG's Build NCC (North Coast Corridor) program, the first phase of a 40-year, $700 million effort to repair and expand vehicle and rail transportation infrastructure throughout the county. Build NCC, which began in 2017 and includes construction in Solana Beach, Encinitas and Carlsbad, is scheduled to be completed in 2022.

Once the full 40-year program is completed, SANDAG anticipates adding a total of 13 miles of new carpool and high-occupancy vehicle freeway lanes, 1 1/2 miles of doubled railroad track, seven miles of bike and pedestrian paths and more than 1,200 acres of restored and preserved coastal habitat land.

– City News Service