Irwin Lane, dotted with pothole patches, runs 1.6 miles from Highway 12 north
to Hall Road west of Santa Rosa and last summer was voted by Road Warrior readers
as the worst road in the county. Road Warrior photo
Roads maintained by Sonoma County no longer are the worst in the Bay Area — they’re second worse.
In its annual pothole report, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission reported today that the county roads last year had a pavement condition index of 45, which is rated as poor. But that’s one point higher than the rating of 44 that the county received in 2006, 2007 and 2008 — all years in which it ranked at the bottom of MTC’s list. The worst roads last year were in the Solano County town of Rio Vista at a rating of 42. Larkspur tied Sonoma County for second worst, also with a 45.
Sonoma County has struggled with maintaining its more than 1,300 miles of roads for years. In the past year, the county has turned two paved stretches of Sonoma Mountain Road into compacted dirt as a test to see how they’ll hold up and whether they’ll be cheaper to maintain. And as part of possible budget cuts, county roads officials proposed abandoning about 100 miles of roads, but the county Board of Supervisors rejected that.
The MTC report said the best roads in the Bay Area last year were in Brentwood, with a rating of 86.
For Sonoma County cities, Sonoma ranked the best at 77, followed by Windsor at 73 and Cloverdale at 71 — all in the good category.
In the fair category were Rohnert Park at 69, Healdsburg at 67, Santa Rosa and Sebastopol at 65 each and Cotati at 64. In the at-risk category was Petaluma at 55.
It’s often thought that higher-income cities have better roads, but the MTC report showed that just above Sonoma County in the poor category were St. Helena at 46 and Orinda at 49.
To read the MTC report and to see other Bay Area cities’ rankings, CLICK HERE.
Check out pressdemocrat.com later today for Staff Writer Guy Kovner’s report giving more insight into the ratings and local roads officials have to say about them.
