In 2005, Caltrans built the Highway 101 overpass at Sixth Street in Santa Rosa but never built the street under it. Now, Santa Rosa is going to.

On Monday, construction crews will start a $1.1 million project to connect the two stretches of Sixth Street that end at the highway, with completion due in October.

Dave Vandeveer, an associate civil engineer for the city who is overseeing the project, said the work includes the new stretch of road, new sidewalks, landscaping and a stoplight at Davis and Sixth.

That stoplight will be at about the end of the downtown southbound offramp from Highway 101, but Vandeveer said that to avoid traffic backing up the offramp, part of the offramp will be re-striped to two lanes from the current one.

He said drivers shouldn’t encounter any significant traffic delays from the construction.

Vandeveer said Caltrans originally planned to connect the two parts of Sixth Street as part of its Highway 101 widening project but dropped the Sixth Street work to shave costs. Years ago, before Highway 101 was elevated, Sixth Street did connect. Part of the construction project involves digging up the old road now buried.

Once Sixth Street is connected, drivers will have another way to get from the Santa Rosa Plaza area to the Railroad Square neighborhood.

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