Lakeville Highway to get safety improvements

Petaluma is accepting bids for a road safety project at Pine View Way and Lakeville Highway, a dangerous intersection.|

Petaluma is taking steps to make a dangerous Lakeville Highway intersection safer a month after a woman died in a head-on collision near the spot.

The lane striping project at Pine View Way has been in the works for eight years, but comes at a time when traffic accidents on Lakeville Highway are increasing.

The work will create a merging lane for cars turning left onto Lakeville from Pine View Way, which is home to the Kaiser Permanente medical campus and other businesses. The project will also install two radar signs that display motorists’ speed and warn drivers when they are going too fast.

“This is not a direct response to the latest collision, but it is a response to previous collisions in the area,” said Curt Bates, the city engineer. “This will provide lane channelization and striping to more easily and safely turn onto Lakeville.”

As commuters frequently use the route as an alternative to Highway 101 or to link to Highway 37, Lakeville Highway has seen an increase in traffic accidents each year for the past five years, according to the CHP. The CHP reported 31 accidents in 2013 on Lakeville Highway from the Petaluma city limits to Highway 37, a 10-mile stretch. In 2014, the CHP reported 33 accidents; 46 in 2015; 52 in 2016; and 56 in 2017.

On April 24, a 67-year-old woman died and three people suffered injuries in a crash involving six vehicles that closed Lakeville Highway for more than four hours. A 19-year-old driver in a Chevrolet Silverado heading into Petaluma crossed double yellow lines into opposite traffic and hit two vehicles. One, a Prius, was driven by the woman who died. The driver also hit a Honda Accord driven by a 22-year-old man.

Jon Sloat, a CHP spokesman, said Lakeville was even more dangerous in the early 2000’s, before officials mandated use daytime headlights and CHP stepped up patrols on the highway.

“Lakeville goes on and off the radar,” he said. “Traffic has increased on Lakeville.”

He said there are no plans to add a barrier between lanes of the two-lane highway.

Bates said the $206,000 striping project is funded from a $185,000 Caltrans grant. Bids for the project should start coming in next week, and the work is expected to be completed by the end of the year, he said.

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

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