About three years after construction work began to widen Highway 101 in Rohnert Park, the new lanes tentatively are scheduled to open in two weeks, Caltrans said.

Spokesman Adam Priest said the plan calls for opening the new, third southbound lane from Santa Rosa Avenue to Rohnert Park Expressway on Wednesday morning, Aug. 29, and the new, third northbound lane on Thursday morning, Aug. 30.

Once opened, the lanes will be carpool only during commute hours, ending the bottleneck carpoolers encountered in Rohnert Park where there now are only two lanes and no carpool lane. Now, carpool lanes will extend from downtown Windsor to north Petaluma.

The wait has been a long time in coming. The first widening segment in downtown Santa Rosa started construction in early 2005 and the Rohnert Park stretch began in 2009. Adding a third lane from Petaluma to Novato, where 101 widens, is years away.

——–

Follow the Road Warrior on Twitter via @PDRoadWarrior