Petaluma section of Highway 101 Marin-Sonoma Narrows set for 2022 finish with $85 million in funding

The expected $85 million in state gas tax money for the Marin-Sonoma Narrows project now sets up a 2022 completion date for the widening of the Petaluma section of Highway 101.

The California Transportation Commission last week formally allocated the money to the two-county road project, which will complete a third lane from Windsor to the Marin County line. The funding was threatened last year by the potential repeal of a tax hike created by Senate Bill 1, but California voters defeated the measure in November with 57 percent opposition.

“It is a historic day,” Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt, who is also a board member for the county transportation authority, said in a statement. “Petaluma residents, and everyone else on Highway 101, welcome the last piece of the funding puzzle falling into place.”

Another $120 million is still needed to complete the project’s remaining Marin County section, from the county line to north of Novato. Those dollars have been identified through the toll hike on the region’s seven state-owned bridges approved by voters in the Bay Area’s nine counties in June. The first of three $1 toll increases over seven years took effect in January on all but the Golden Gate Bridge, but Regional Measure 3 has been challenged in San Francisco Superior Court and the money sits idle with a date for the lawsuit’s initial hearing yet to be set.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler.