Get ready to say goodbye to that ‘swervey, curvey’ road in Shell Beach

Shell Beach’s “swervey, curvey” road won’t be that much longer.

According to Pismo Beach Public Works Director Ben Fine, the latest phase of the Shell Beach Streetscape Project is nearing completion, meaning the road will be returned back to the straight-and-narrow in the coming weeks.

“It’ll be really interesting to see when we put it back whether people will miss it,” Fine told The Tribune in a phone interview on Monday.

The wobbly road caught local (and national) attention this spring for its unique path that demanded drivers twist and turn down the street like drunken sailors.

“Cops are getting pretty crafty in catching drunk drivers,” one resident joked to The Tribune in March soon after the road was re-striped.

The road’s winding curves were an effort by the city to keep parking along the busy stretch and give space to workers while it was under construction as part of the $13 million Shell Beach Road Streetscape project. (The project is redesigning that area of Shell Beach, in hopes to make it more walkable and visually appealing.)

Fine said that though the road’s unusual design was initially laughed at, it has since served its purpose.

“It’s really achieved its goals to add parking, but it also slowed everyone down,” he said. “Having the ‘swervey, curvey’ road has really helped to slow down traffic.”

In its short time, the road has become something of a celebrated oddity.

In May, the city and Doc Burnstein’s Ice Cream Lab unveiled a custom flavor of ice cream called the “Swervy Shell Swirl” (the flavor is no longer available).

The city also installed a sign at the entrance to Shell Beach from southbound Highway 101 warning drivers of a “SWERVEY CURVEY ROAD” ahead.

Fine said once contractors finish installing new underground wires under the street, they will begin to install curbs along the street.

“That’s when we will see what the finished product is going to look like,” he said, noting that that’s also when the snakelike road will probably disappear in favor of a more traditional straight path.

That will happen sometime in October or November, he said.

After that, work on the streetscape project will continue through next year, with a completion date sometime around June 2020, he said.

“I am going to miss it,” Fine said of the soon-to-disappear winding road. “It really worked out better than we ever imagined.”