Rainier connector is 1st phase

<p>The Rainier project is now officially two projects, with a cross-town roadway moving ahead before the construction of a new freeway interchange.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>The City Council on Monday gave its blessing to a plan that would tie the new roadway into the Highway 101 widening project. When the freeway is widened, enough room will be created beneath it for a four-lane Rainier extension below.</p><p>To couple the Rainier extension with the future freeway widening, the city will pay $1.4 million to conduct environmental studies and design work so that the undercrossing project is ready when Caltrans expands 101.</p><p>A previous plan to study and design the full connector and interchange at the same time will be put on the back burner, at least for the time being. Council members said the interchange is still in the city's plans and work already completed on the full project's design should not be thrown out.</p><p>Mayor Pamela Torliatt and others said the council resolution approving the project change should be amended to remove references to the interchange work being “suspended.”</p><p>“We're not precluding anything,” Torliatt said.</p><p>The city's public works director, Vince Marengo, said technical studies already completed for the larger project are still useful.</p><p>“We're not going to throw away any technical analyses that we've already performed,” Marengo said.</p><p>The project, as now envisioned, would create a new road from North McDowell Boulevard to Petaluma Boulevard North, passing under the freeway and over the railroad tracks and the Petaluma River.</p><p>In the future, if a new interchange is approved by Caltrans, freeway ramps would be added to both sides of Highway 101 at the new road. The cost for the full project has been estimated between $75 million and $109 million, depending on how the ramps are configured.</p><p>After the Caltrans work to accommodate an undercrossing is completed, a new road is expected to be paid for through traffic-impact fees and dedication of land from developers of adjacent properties.</p><p>Council members said the split of the larger project into two is a good way to make progress on the long-sought connector, which has appeared in various city planning documents since 1962 and won 72 percent approval in a 2004 advisory measure by Petaluma voters.</p><p>“In order to get things done in government, we need to take incremental steps toward our goals,” Councilmember Mike Harris said.</p><p>The council is also facing a deadline to get the undercrossing of the freeway included in the design work for the widening through Petaluma, which is about to be put out for a bid by the Sonoma County Transportation Authority.</p><p>“That point is in the cross-hairs right now,” Vice Mayor David Glass said.</p><p>The SCTA is expected to sign off on the project changes at its meeting next week.</p><p>(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier. com)</p>