More warning about street closures

Is there anyway to have SMART Rail contractor Stacy and Witbeck to give advance notices on which rail section (between crossings) they will be working on for the week so that drivers will not get stuck on rail sections such as Guerneville Rd. to College Ave. having to merge into one lane during commute hours? Had I known that, I would use alternate route. Their construction updates from sonomamarintrain.org website are not accurate. Work was in progress on March 4 instead of March 26 to April 6. – Mond

Mond may have stumbled upon a short-term lane closure required by the contractors as part of their scheduled work, said Matt Stevens, SMART’s community relations manager. “We post long-term lane closures, but sometimes the contractors make decisions from the field about temporary closures.”

They can do that without having to notify SMART if the closures are less than 20 minutes, he said.

That’s no consolation to drivers stuck in those impromptu jams, but Stevens assures us that he holds meetings every morning “to find out what’s up and get a game plan for the day.”

He reports that crews are making good progress in Santa Rosa on the rails and crossings between Sixth and Ninth streets, but watch for a nine-day closure of Eighth Street between March 11 and March 19 while that grate crossing is replaced and old sewage pipes are replaced for the City of Santa Rosa.

You can follow construction updates here or call (855) 312-7444 to ask a question or report a problem.

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