Road work ahead for cities, counties

A 1.2-mile stretch of Summerfield Road in Santa Rosa is checkered by asphalt patches and cracks from years of traffic, leaving a choppy surface for drivers and bicyclists.

It is not the worst road in Santa Rosa. But it is eligible for instant repair with money provided by the federal government, and that is what counts in these days of a falling economy.

Some even wonder why it is being singled out by city officials.

?I would think the money could be spent elsewhere, like in the education system,? said Brian Edwards, who lives on a street adjacent to Summerfield.

?It?s pretty easy to ride on,? said bicyclist Rebecca Stanger. ?It?s not bumpy or anything. It seems kind of unnecessary.?

Regardless, the segment of Summerfield between Sonoma Avenue and Santa Rosita Court and dozens more like it from Cloverdale to Petaluma and in rural Sonoma County are getting an overlay of a rubberized sealant to smooth them out and guard against moisture.

The repairs are being paid for out of the $32million in federal stimulus money that will be flowing into Sonoma County in the next few months to fix roads and maintain and buy buses and also to the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District to renovate a Larkspur ferry boat.

It is the first slug of federal dollars, meant for projects that are ready to go, not within months, but within weeks.

?These are needed projects we had scheduled for a few years out, but we moved them up,? said Tom O?Kane Jr., Sonoma County?s deputy director of public works.

Nationwide, the federal government is putting $50billion into thousands of these small transportation projects that could employ up to 400,000 people.

For many government agencies, the funds salvage preventive maintenance projects that had been relegated to the back shelf.

Santa Rosa transportation planner Nancy Adams said Summerfield Road and College Avenue are examples of city roads that are in worse shape then they look.

Applying the overlay will make them smoother and prevent water from seeping in and causing damage that would require costly rebuilding.

?We are not waiting until they need to be reconstructed,? Adams said. ?Sometimes people say that the road doesn?t look, visually, that bad. The thing is, we don?t want it to get that bad.?

The city of Santa Rosa is getting $3.1million to put a rubberized chip-seal on Summerfield Road and on College Avenue from the Northwestern Pacific Railroad tracks to Tyara Way.

It should make driving ?a little bit better,? O?Kane said. ?We are focusing on the major roadways, the collectors and arterials.?

Santa Rosa also is getting an additional $750,000 to synchronize traffic lights along College Avenue, which is expected to improve travel time by 30 percent.

Sonoma County?s share is $5.2 million to put a rubberized chip-seal on 55 miles of road and a sealant on 45 concrete bridges to prevent deterioration.

The road surface work is different than that done last fall, when Sonoma County used a rock chip-seal on miles on Occidental Road, generating complaints from motorists and bike riders. The rubberized seal also lasts longer, a requirement of the stimulus money.

In an attempt to keep the money within Sonoma County, the county and cities of Santa Rosa and Petaluma are holding a workshop for contractors March 12 at the Doubletree Hotel in Rohnert Park.

?The idea is to stimulate interest locally, rather than have someone come in from Los Angeles or elsewhere to do the work in the county,? O?Kane said. ?We want to give the local contractors a chance to joint venture to give us bids so we can keep as much of the money in the county as possible.?

O?Kane said the stimulus money will be authorized for distribution by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission by the end of the month, letting the agencies go out to bid and have the projects under way by June.

Officials for both Santa Rosa and Sonoma County bus systems said the federal money will help make up for lost state revenue to maintain the vehicles they have, and also to buy new alternative-energy buses.

?It certainly helps, certainly the maintenance funds, because of the state cuts,? said Bryan Albee, Sonoma County Transit manager.

Sonoma County Transit is getting $1.3million for maintenance, replacing the amount the district is losing in sales taxes and state cutbacks, and $1.1million to buy two new buses powered by compressed natural gas.

Santa Rosa Citibus is receiving $3.6million for preventive maintenance on its buses and $630,000 to buy a new hybrid bus, said city transit planner Joanne Parker.

Parker said the money will make up for what?s been lost in state funding.

?The federal money will make us whole so we don?t have to have discussions of service cuts right now,? Parker said.

Golden Gate Transit is receiving $9.4million to refurbish one of two high-speed ferries the district is buying from the Washington State Ferry system, sister ships of the MV Del Norte, already in service in the district.

The district in January bought the MV Chinook and the MV Snohomish for $4million. The Snohomish will be used in the Larkspur-San Francisco service while the MV Del Norte gets new engines and the Chinook is refurbished.

You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at 521-5206 or bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com