PD Editorial: Opening the bottleneck on Highway 101

Congress earmarked $20 million for ferry service from Port Sonoma under mysterious circumstances in 2005.

The ferry plan is long forgotten, and the earmarked money still is in the federal treasury, with $18.2 million available for an alternative North Bay transportation project.

A dispute is shaping up over how it should be spent, but there’s no mystery this time. The top priority must be widening Highway 101 through the Novato Narrows.

The 10-mile stretch between Petaluma and Novato is one of the worst bottlenecks in the Bay Area, with about 90,000 vehicles squeezing through each day.

Transportation officials in Sonoma and Marin counties have capitalized on opportunities to improve traffic through the narrows, steadily extending the carpool lane north from Novato toward the county line and replacing the Petaluma River bridge in anticipation of adding a third southbound lane.

Sonoma County has $14 million set aside for widening the highway south of Petaluma, and the county Transportation Authority is seeking $15 million more from the Port Sonoma earmark - enough money to complete a carpool lane from the new bridge south to the county line.

The remaining $3.2 million would be available for improvements at the San Rafael transit center that must be completed before SMART begins commuter rail service later this year.

However, the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit agency and the Golden Gate Bridge District, which provides bus service through San Rafael, are asking for $12 million of Port Sonoma money to complete a more expansive remodel of the transit center that is needed before SMART extends service to Larkspur in 2018.

SMART has done a commendable job of stretching its sales tax revenue and leveraging additional money. When service begins this fall, it will relieve some of the peak-hour traffic congestion through the Novato Narrows. Even under the most optimistic of scenarios, it won’t come close to offsetting the need for a third lane in each direction on Highway 101.

Without the Port Sonoma money, it could be a long wait for funding for the widening project.

The state’s highway fund is running on fumes, so there won’t be any help there, at least not anytime soon. Congress passed a highway bill in December, but regional transportation officials have given the Interstate 80/680 interchange in Solano County priority over the narrows for near-term funding.

Rohnert Park Councilman Jake Mackenzie, in his role as vice chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, is trying to convene a summit meeting of Marin and Sonoma county road and transit officials before the dispute becomes an all-out war. His goal is a truce - with an understanding that the highway project needs to be the top priority at this time.

“The reality at the moment,” Mackenzie said, “is for us to complete this very important project is going to require a large chunk of the earmark.”

Other sources of money, potentially including toll revenue from Bay Area bridges, could be used to complete the larger expansion of San Rafael’s transit center, Mackenzie said.

A final decision on redirecting the earmark rests with state transportation officials, some of whom are scheduled to participate in a town hall meeting this evening in Petaluma. A slow ride through the Novato Narrows should tell them all they need to know.