How can you draw attention to bad roads? What are those triangles showing up on Santa Rosa streets? And when will roadwork be done on Bloomfield Road? Here’s what has been on Road Warrior readers’ minds.
Question: Mueller Rd. between Hwy. 116 and Graton Rd is desperately in need of a complete re-paving. It’s beyond repair. The same is true for Frei Rd. between Hwy. 116 and Guerneville Rd. What do we have to do to draw attention to these two spots? How is the re-paving budget allocated and what are the priorities for action. — Walt
That’s a simple question with a complicated answer. The short version: Lobby your county supervisor as soon as possible. The long version follows.
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors decide which roads to repave each year, drawing from a list that starts with public works crews and works its way through administrators at the Department of Transportation and Public Works and finally through an ad hoc committee comprised of Susan Klassen, director of that department, two representatives from the County Administrator’s office and Supervisors David Rabbitt and Mark McGuire.
“Two or three months ago I put together a list from information I’ve gotten from engineering, construction and pothole crews,” said Tom O’Kane, deputy director of the county’s department of transportation and public works. Then he prioritized them, estimated the cost of each and devised a list that would meet his road maintenance budget. (It’s $16 million for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.)
His list went to Klassen and Jason Nutt, also a deputy director, through Phil Demerey, the department’s director and on to the ad hoc committee to discuss in early December. Their recommendations will likely go to the Board of Supervisors in January.
In 2010, the Board voted to reserve its long-term maintenance dollars for 200 miles of highly traveled, regionally significant roads, only 14 percent of the county’s 1,300-mile network. At the time, they acknowledged that most of the remaining 1,100 miles would ultimately return to gravel.
Last year the Board also allocated another $6.5 million for 13.2 miles of roads deemed important to the local economy because they lead to parks, wineries and other destinations serving tourism and agriculture. This summer that money was used to pave stretches of Bohemian Highway serving the Russian River, Doran Beach Road serving Bodega Harbor, West Dry Creek, Westside and Eastside roads serving wineries and vineyards, and Adobe Canyon Road and London Ranch Road serving state and county parks.
A small portion of Lichau Road also was included on the list, although it is in the hills east of Rohnert Park. Critics disagreed with its inclusion, saying Lichau was added because of political pressure by residents who actively lobbied the board for repairs.
Susan Klassen, the county’s deputy director of public works and transportation, said the road needed improvements to alleviate safety issues for school children visiting the Fairfield Osborne Preserve. She later acknowledged in an interview with Press Democrat Reporter Brett Wilkison that some roads were selected to balance funding among supervisorial districts or because of a groundswell caused by political pressure.
“I guess you could use the word squeaky wheel,” she said, referring to the complaint raised by critics. “To some extent, all the work we do is like that.”
Read the full story here.
New triangles showing up around town
Question: What are the new triangle-shaped lines painted on Fourth Street/Hwy. 12? (I noticed them between College Ave. and Farmers Lane.) Are these showing up anywhere else in town? – Jean
The answer comes from Rob Sprinkle, Santa Rosa Traffic Engineer. The sharks tooth markings indicate where you should stop while yielding to a pedestrian in the crosswalk. They are accompanied by this sign.
There also is an installation on Yulupa Avenue at Matanza School, and Sprinkle says the city will slowly be transitioning to these markings as crosswalks are restriped.
When will road crews finish up?
Question: Last week county workers added a new level of asphalt pavement – at Bloomfield and 116 for about 1 mile stretch – but it was a different type of pavement with losts of rubble? What did they do? And will they pave new lines as well over it – esp the white on the sides. They painted the two yellow lines at the beginning of October but still have yet to paint the side solid white lines on the sides. — Moses
The answer comes from Tom O’Kane, deputy director of the county’s transportation and public works department. “The edge lines will be reestablished as soon as we can schedule our contractor to return to several areas that need attention,” he said.
“You may know already, but we are still without a striping truck of our own. It is on order, but has not arrived yet to put in service. Some of the roads that were paved this year by our personnel have the edge lines remaining to be painted. We had the center line painted as soon as we finished, but the white edge lines will be done later.”
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