Results from a community survey will help determine how local agencies approach replacing a coastal railroad bridge in the Lompoc Valley.
“What makes this community engagement process really unique is that it’s starting super early,” said Sophie Bartley, Central Coast region project manager for LegacyWorks, one of the groups spearheading the initiative.
Replacing the 100-plus-year-old Union Pacific bridge—which takes trains over a segment of the Santa Ynez River near Ocean Beach Park—won’t occur until 2029 at the earliest, Bartley explained.
“Typically, in traditional projects like this, you might see the community engagement start during the permitting process, when it’s required by some environmental regulations,” she told the Sun. “You’re required to engage with the community in a certain way. And sometimes in projects, by the time you get to that point when the community is allowed to provide feedback, it can almost be a little bit too late for that feedback to be really, truly integrated in a meaningful way.”
Since design proposals for the bridge replacement haven’t been created yet, “we’re in what I’m calling the ideation stage,” Bartley added.
While promoting the survey—which closes on May 10, and is available online in both English and Spanish—Bartley is also helping lead a handful of focus group meetings in the Lompoc Valley for community members to learn about the project and voice their opinions.
‘We’re really inviting everybody to almost close their eyes, imagine standing in their ideal version of this estuary, this park. What would it look like? And what do we need to do in order to make that vision come true?’
—LegacyWorks Central Coast Region Project Manager Sophie Bartley
Compiling input from in-person events and the survey results will be integral to a town hall meeting in July where Bartley will present a comprehensive rundown of the feedback and design proposals that aim to incorporate suggestions from the public.
“This will be an opportunity to actually give people some visualization and some more context of some of the things that can happen, and to go through some of the things that we’ve heard through this engagement process,” Bartley said, “and explain how the community feedback is being incorporated, and where it wasn’t possible to incorporate things, but to explain how it was considered and why it’s not possible.”
Community members who want to complete the online survey can find the QR code to access it online at santaynezsurfbridge.org or on flyers posted at Surf Beach’s Amtrak station.
Among the reasons the bridge needs to be replaced is its role in restricting water flow at certain times of year, which damages habitats in the Santa Ynez River.
One cause is visible to Ocean Beach Park visitors, Bartley said, as a large pile of rocks that holds up one end of the bridge has led to sediment buildup over the years.
A potential option for reducing the sediment, “and giving the river a little bit more breathing room,” could be extending the length of the bridge, therefore removing the need for the rocks to support that part of it, Bartley added.
“This bridge replacement is happening in a very unique and important estuary environment. There are very few remaining California wetland environments, especially in the Central Coast,” Bartley said. “[Agencies] really saw this project as an opportunity to combine some potential restoration efforts with this bridge placement, by designing the bridge in a way that will allow some of the natural ecological function of the river to be restored.”
While community engagement efforts kicked off in early 2026, conversations have “been happening for a while,” Bartley said.
“There’s been a lot of people and organizations that have been interested in directing efforts towards this estuary and taking a more intentional approach towards restoration, and part of that has been one of the big impediments to that restoration effort has been this bridge,” Bartley said. “Our hope is that through this redesign, we’ll be able to create a bridge that not only is not a detriment to the estuary, but actually hopefully helps support and honor the estuary and the life that it supports.”
Highlight
• The California Association of Museums recently awarded the Cabrillo High School Aquarium the Superintendent’s Award for Excellence in Museum Education. Fully student-run, the local aquarium offers free public programming throughout the year, including its upcoming Earth Day open house event on April 22. “The aquarium exists to connect people, especially young people, with the natural world, and to be honored by the state for that work is incredibly meaningful,” aquarium director Greg Eisen said in an April 3 statement.
Reach Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood at cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in April 9 – April 16, 2026.