Transportation funding battle focuses on Petaluma highway

A nearly $20 million pot of federal money, allocated more than 10 years ago for a now-defunct ferry project, could provide the missing funding to widen a key stretch of Highway 101 south of Petaluma, or help fund an important transit project in San Rafael, transportation officials said. The rare bit of funding has agencies competing for the dollars, setting up a political battle between regional transportation interests.

The money dates back to a 2005 congressional earmark to establish a ferry service between the Port of Sonoma, at the mouth of the Petaluma River, and San Francisco. Former Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, lobbied for the project that never got off the ground.

But the money - now $18.2 million - never went away, and the federal Department of Transportation recently provided guidance to states on repurposing the unused funds. The California State Transportation Agency now has control of the money and must allocate it to a project within 50 miles of the Port of Sonoma, the original recipient.

The Sonoma County Transportation Authority has been eying a chunk of the money to match $15 million in local funds to widen Highway 101 from the Petaluma River Bridge to the Sonoma-Marin County line and open up nearly five miles of carpool lanes on the congested freeway.

But the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit agency and the Golden Gate Bridge district want to use the money to redesign the San Rafael Transit Center, a key bus terminal that is in the path of SMART’s planned extension to Larkspur.

Two weeks ago, SMART and the Golden Gate Bridge district sent a letter to the State Transportation Agency appealing for the funds. The move caught Supervisor David Rabbitt by surprise.

Rabbitt, who represents the district that includes the Port of Sonoma, also sits on the SMART board, the Golden Gate Bridge district board and the SCTA board. He sent his own letter lobbying for the funding to go to the Highway 101 project.

“In my opinion, the dire need for those dollars are to leverage, to the greatest degree possible, local dollars that are available,” he said. “In this particular case, those dollars are needed for the highway widening of 101.”

Rabbitt’s letter asks the state for $15 million of the earmark. The remaining $3.2 million, he said, could go toward the transit center project. The other letter, from SMART General Manager Farhad Mansourian and Golden Gate Bridge General Manager Denis Mulligan, petitions for $12 million, leaving $6 million for the highway project.

Mansourian said that his letter was meant to secure a place at the table when state transportation officials award the funding later this summer.

“All we did was put ourselves in a position to be part of the discussion,” he said. “If you don’t put in a letter, you aren’t in the mix.”

SCTA Executive Director Suzanne Smith said that $6 million would not be enough to complete the highway widening work.

“It’s like spreading a thin layer of peanut butter, not making a sandwich,” she said.

SCTA officials are hoping that the $35 million highway project, which would likely require another $5 million in state funding, can be completed by 2018, when the construction at the county line is expected to wrap up. That would allow officials to open up the carpool lanes between the Petaluma River and the county line. Another four-lane stretch of Highway 101 through Petaluma remains unfunded.

Smith said that the bulk of the earmark should be spent on the highway project, which has the potential to have the biggest impact on the regional transportation network.

“This isn’t a typical grant. This is a one-off,” she said. “What do we want to do that gets the most bang for the buck. The transit center serves 9,000 riders per day, while 100,000 people drive through The Narrows each day, so ...”

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)