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Highway 101 congestion:

Nailing down 101 Narrows fixes

The first of several projects to improve Petaluma-to-Novato highway will be under way soon

Congestion on Highway 101 between Petaluma and Novato.

Nina Zhito
By
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF
Published: Monday, October 19, 2009 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, October 16, 2009 at 10:09 a.m.

The schedule is set — much-anticipated repairs to the Marin-Sonoma Narrows stretch of Highway 101 will begin a year from now, setting up new carpool lanes and interchanges to benefit North Bay drivers.

Facts

MARIN-SONOMA NARROWS: FIRST PHASE

New ramps at East Washington Street interchange in Petaluma:
• Re-align southbound on-ramp, add new northbound on-ramp (behind Petaluma Plaza shopping center), modify northbound off-ramp.
• Construction begins fall 2010
• Cost: $21.5 million

Carpool lanes in Novato:
• Add carpool lane to northbound and southbound Highway 101 from Atherton Avenue south to Highway 37.
• Construction begins fall 2010
• Cost: $77 million

Interchange at Redwood Landfill:
• Add ramps, frontage roads and bikeway.
• Construction begins summer 2011
• Cost: $67 million

Interchange at Petaluma Boulevard South:
• Add ramps, frontage roads and bikeway.
• Construction begins summer 2011
• Cost: $58 million

Highway re-alignment at San Antonio Road:
• Raise and re-align highway over San Antonio Creek
• Construction begins December 2011
• Cost: $71 million

Not scheduled: Replace Petaluma River and Lakeville Highway bridges ($95 million) and extend carpool lanes from Novato through Petaluma.
Source: Sonoma County Transportation Authority

CALTRANS FACING LAWSUITS OVER NARROWS EIR

Two North Bay organizations have filed lawsuits against Caltrans over environmental studies approved for the widening of the Marin-Sonoma Narrows, contending that the reports did not properly analyze the impacts of more greenhouse gases from cars traveling the new highway lanes.
The Marin-based organization Transportation Solutions Defense and Education Fund claims that although the Narrows project would increase greenhouse gases, an environmental impact report did not analyze the effects of that increase.
In the EIR, Caltrans stated that it is difficult to assess how an individual project’s increase in greenhouse gas emissions contributes to overall climate change.
“It is too speculative to make a determination regarding significance of the project’s direct impact and its contribution on the cumulative scale to climate change,” the EIR states.
In a commentary in the Marin Independent-Journal last month, TRANSDEF’s David Schonbrunn said his organization has offered to drop the suit if new carpool lanes are left out of the Narrows improvements.
A group called the North Coast Rivers Alliance is also suing Caltrans over the greenhouse gas issue and other alleged deficiencies in the Narrows EIR approved this summer.
The alliance, whose members include former Fairfax mayor Frank Egger, says the EIR does not address how greenhouse gas emissions from the project will impact global warming and does not address how such impacts could be mitigated.
The group also claims that because a water pipeline serving Marin residents is slated to be relocated and expanded in conjunction with the Narrows project, the EIR should address the pipeline work as well.
Although the Narrows EIR states that the pipeline work will be addressed in a separate environmental review, the alliance claims that this would amount to a “piecemeal” approach. The EIR’s failure to address the pipeline work violates the California Environmental Quality Act, the group claims.
Caltrans spokesman Robert Haus said the agency would not comment on the litigation, but said the lawsuits have not delayed the project’s schedule.
— Corey Young, Argus-Courier

Petalumans will be among the first to see signs of the work when a $21.5 million enhancement of the East Washington interchange gets off the ground in September 2010, the Sonoma County Transportation Authority said.

At the same time, a three-mile segment of 101 through the city of Novato will get new northbound and southbound carpool lanes, creating four freeway lanes in each direction there.

At East Washington Street, a new northbound on-ramp will be built behind the Petaluma Plaza shopping center. Ramps on the southbound side of the freeway will also be improved.

The addition of carpool lanes through the true “Narrows” portion of the highway, however, is several years off. Officials say the early projects will put in place improvements that are needed anyway and can be funded now, such as frontage roads and better interchanges.

The seven-mile stretch of 101 from Petaluma to Novato features rural roads that empty right on to the highway, creating problems when drivers try to make a left turn across fast-moving traffic.

So, a series of frontage roads are planned to connect rural properties and roads such as San Antonio and Kastania with new interchanges at Redwood Landfill in Marin and Petaluma Boulevard South.

Together with the Novato carpool lanes and a re-alignment of the highway at San Antonio Creek, the interchange improvements at East Washington, Petaluma Boulevard South and the landfill will make up most of the $300 million first phase of the Narrows work.

Also planned for the initial phase, but not fully funded, is a $95 million upgrade to the freeway bridges that cross over Lakeville Highway and the Petaluma River.

Like the addition of ramps and an overhead connecting road at Petaluma Boulevard South, the bridge work is needed in advance of the actual freeway widening in south Petaluma.

The Sonoma County Transportation Authority, which is planning the Narrows fixes with the Transportation Authority of Marin and Caltrans, says the initial phase of work gives officials the best opportunity to leverage local sales tax dollars for transportation with state and federal money.

Officials want to spend what is currently budgeted for such stand-alone Narrows improvements while the money is available, said Suzanne Smith, the SCTA’s executive director.

Money pledged from the 2004 Measure M sales tax increase in Sonoma County is generated locally, but matching funds from the state could be subject to budget changes in Sacramento, she said.

“It’s always at risk before it’s under contract, and even then it’s uncertain,” Smith said. “The state isn’t always the best funding partner.”

There is “no immediate threat” to the $300 million in phase one work along the Narrows, “but in the next budget cycle, who knows?” Smith said. “So far, we have managed to make it work.”

In June of 2011, when the Novato carpool lanes and the East Washington interchange work are expected to be well underway, the interchange improvements at the landfill and Petaluma Boulevard South are scheduled to begin.

Later that year, in December, the re-alignment work at San Antonio Creek is scheduled to begin. Each of the sub-projects is estimated to take at least two years to complete.

As for future funding of the bridge work in Petaluma and carpool lanes from Petaluma to Novato, Smith said there aren’t many places to turn. The tab for the remainder of the widening work is estimated at $450 million.

“The only kind of ‘next big thing’ on the horizon is hopefully another big federal transportation bill in the next 12 months,” she said. “Outside of that, it’s quite bleak.”

(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier. com)

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