Santa Rosa to repave dozens of residential streets next month

A Santa Rosa pavement rehabilitation project will focus on dozens of residential streets across the city next month.

Sections of road will be slurry sealed July 26 through Aug. 6 in order to maintain pavement surfaces, the city announced Monday. New street markings will be added to street surfaces once slurry seal work has concluded.

According to the city, slurry seal is “a cost-effective pavement surface treatment meant to extend the life of a roadway and must be applied before potholes and broken surfaces emerge.”

Streets will be closed 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. while work takes place and they’ll only reopen after city personnel determine they are safe for drivers. Anyone who drives through wet slurry could damage their vehicle, city staff said.

Homeowners are expected to be notified about their streets in advance but a map and schedule are available online.

The project is expected to cost about $494,000 and focuses on streets in the northeast portion of Santa Rosa. The first wave of work will happen July 26 in areas east and west of Mendocino Avenue, north of College Avenue.

Several streets appeared to be in decent condition Monday afternoon and, in some cases, visible damage turned out to be shadows from overhead utility lines.

Although streets appeared to be in good condition, motorists and bicyclists agreed they were glad work was being done before damage got worse.

Santa Rosa resident Steven Schafer, 58, bicycled onto Montecito Avenue from a stretch of Pacific Avenue, where other road work and damage caused a bumpy ride.

Montecito is scheduled to be slurry sealed Aug. 6 between Pacific and Norte Way and Schafer said he’s glad it won’t fall into the same condition as Pacific.

“I’m glad the city is ahead of the curve,” Schafer said. “I can think of other streets that are in bad shape, but I’m glad at least one on my route is getting smoothed out.”

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi