CARLSBAD -- Drivers may think it looks ready to go, but they can't use the new 1.3-mile section of Faraday Avenue to escape the congestion on Palomar Airport Road until October.

And maybe not even until mid-way through that month.

The road's builders - TechBilt Construction - asked the city late last week to delay the early October grand opening celebration by a few weeks, saying work won't be completed until then. The city is planning to send out inspectors to assess the situation, city traffic engineer Bob Johnson said Monday.

Doug Woods, project manager for TechBilt, said that much of what remains unfinished is in spots that a casual observer wouldn't see. Work on sewer manhole areas and hooking up the underground electrical lines make that list, he said.

In addition, landscaping along the road isn't done, Woods said.

The $16 million project runs from the western edge of the Vista city limits at Melrose Drive to Orion Way in Carlsbad. Combining the new road with older sections of Faraday to the west, a Vista resident could travel through much of Carlsbad's business park region and emerge near Interstate 5 at Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

Completing Faraday has long been sought as a way to ease congestion on Palomar Airport Road. A regional road forecast for 2010 calls for the new Faraday Avenue segment to handle 28,000 to 32,000 vehicles a day, Johnson said.

"We're definitely looking forward to get that roadway open," he said.

However, he added, the city is "somewhat limited in how much we can push them" because Carlsbad isn't paying for the work. It's a city requirement on Techbilt's Carlsbad Oaks North business park project.

The new segment of Faraday was initially forecast to open well before the latest part of Melrose Drive opened in 2006. In fact, the two road projects were linked by Carlsbad officials who said both should open at the same time in order to avoid traffic troubles.

But the Faraday project ran into environmental and legal problems and its opening date was delayed. At one point last year, the forecast was for it to open early this year; later it became spring and then summer, Johnson said.

At this point, most of the big items are done, Woods said. TechBilt could open the road and do the manhole work afterward, but that would mean having vehicles very near the workers, he said.

That is a concern for the city, too, Johnson said.

"It's always better to get everything completed before we put traffic on a road … from a safety standpoint," he said.

This is one of two road projects that are required as part of the Carlsbad Oaks development. The second - a roughly half-mile segment of El Fuerte north of Loker Avenue - isn't as far along as the Faraday Avenue project, Woods said. It still needs paving and its grand opening date isn't yet set, he said.

The business park portion of the project also still is a work in progress. Building "pad" areas near the future Faraday Avenue is mostly completed, but other phases won't be done at least until mid-way through next year, Woods said.

- Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.