City crews began installing speed tables on Neilson Way on Tuesday, Oct. 20. The work brings lane closures and detours to a stretch of road used daily by Ocean Park residents, cyclists and beachgoers.
The project covers Neilson Way between Pico Boulevard and Marine Street. Crews are working 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, and the city expects the job to wrap up by Friday, Oct. 30, according to City Manager Oliver C. Chi's weekly staff newsletter, republished by Santa Monica Next.
Speed tables are elongated speed humps that force drivers to slow down. The project also includes new signs and roadway markings along the corridor.
What drivers should know
Message boards are already posted along Neilson Way. Sections of the street will close intermittently, with detours and traffic control staff in place. Driveway access will be maintained.
The city is asking drivers to use alternate routes where possible and watch for temporary no-parking signs.
Why Neilson Way
The speed tables build on a 2024 change that lowered the speed limit on the same stretch of Neilson Way from 30 mph to 25 mph. Chi wrote in the newsletter that the project is part of a Neighborhood Traffic Calming Toolkit that city staff presented at a September Safe System study session. That toolkit includes quick-build measures such as speed humps, speed tables, feedback signs and all-way stops that can be installed in weeks rather than years.
Chi wrote that the city consolidated mobility and transportation functions into Public Works earlier in 2026 as part of its Realignment Plan, adopted in October 2025. The Neilson Way project, he wrote, shows the payoff: a safety improvement that once would have required a multi-year capital cycle instead moved from design to installation on a quick-build timeline.
The Ocean Park Association newsletter flagged the project to neighborhood residents on Oct. 19. Chi wrote that the toolkit will roll out to other neighborhoods next.
