If you drive Mark West Springs Road/Porter Creek Road between Santa Rosa and Napa, things just got surprisingly smoother for you.

The Sonoma County roads department recently paved a segment of Porter Creek Road west of Calistoga Road that had to be one of the bumpiest, pothole-patched stretches in the county. And it did it cheaply.

Porter Creek Road wasn’t on the county’s list for immediate improvements, but the roads department decided to do the work after Caterpillar offered to loan the county a paving machine and a steam roller to try out in hopes the county may buy the new equipment, said Rob Houweling, northern/southern operations coordinator for the county Department of Transportation and Public Works. The cost to the county was materials and labor.

So the roads crew took the machines for a spin, and motorists win.

The county also paved some stretches of Pressley Road between Sonoma Mountain and Lichau roads and Bennett Valley Road between Enterprise and Warms Springs roads — again because Caterpillar and another paving equipment maker let the roads department try out their equipment for free.