In April 2001, Grey Davis was governor, a gallon of fuel averaged $1.70 a gallon in California, and work received underway on the Freeway 101 widening undertaking in Sonoma County.
After a quarter-century, the ultimate part is wrapping up.
Caltrans hopes to finish new north- and southbound lanes within the Sonoma-Marin Narrows by the tip of the month, clearing the ultimate bottleneck. A proper ribbon-cutting is deliberate on Oct 3.
At that time, Freeway 101 could have three lanes in every route between Windsor and the Golden Gate Bridge, a distance of just about 60 miles.
At a cumulative value of greater than $1.5 billion, it might be the North Bay’s largest and most impactful public works undertaking, rivaling Heat Springs Dam, accomplished in 1983 at an inflation-adjusted value of $1 billion.
And what an extended, unusual journey it’s been.
A overview of Press Democrat archives unearthed tales from the Nineteen Sixties about drivers griping about visitors on Freeway 101. A debate about how — and even whether or not — to deal with congestion on the freeway lasted for years. Requires extra lanes drew rebuttals {that a} wider freeway would promote development, offsetting any congestion reduction. Finally, an uneasy compromise was struck: new freeway lanes and a commuter rail line.
Breaking the gridlock over funding took extra years and a number of elections.
The primary Sonoma County gross sales tax measure for freeway widening went on the poll in 1990 and received 46% of the vote. In 1998, help elevated to 47.6%. In 2000, it grew to 58.5% on a freeway measure and 60.3% on a companion rail measure. However by then the principles had modified: a two-thirds majority was required for particular goal native taxes.
On the fourth strive, in November 2004, voters accepted Measure M, a half-cent gross sales tax for transportation enhancements, together with widening Freeway 101, with 67.2% — a margin of barely 1,000 votes out of greater than 209,000 ballots solid. (1 / 4-cent gross sales tax for SMART, the North Bay rail system, handed 4 years later.)
By then, the primary part, automotive pool lanes between Wilfred Avenue in Rohnert Park and Freeway 12, had been accomplished with state funding.
The preliminary plan didn’t embody the Marin-Sonoma Narrows or Petaluma. The scope of the widening undertaking grew as further cash was secured, with state and federal grants stretching native {dollars} earmarked for Freeway 101 by fivefold.
With out the voter-approved gross sales tax, it’s possible that the widening undertaking would have scaled again, leaving a number of bottlenecks, together with the narrows. Dozens of previous and current elected officers on the native, state and federal degree, the Sonoma County Transportation Authority and an extended listing of neighborhood teams share credit score for securing a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} to complete the job.
Visitors nonetheless backs up on Freeway 101 at commute hour, and additional lanes aren’t going to vary that. Because the widening undertaking wraps up, many drivers are irritated that Caltrans prolonged carpool lane hours from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and three p.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays in each instructions – an additional 4½ hours every day in Sonoma County.
One reader wrote, “Remove carpool lanes in Sonoma and Marin counties, and the remainder of California, and lay off the Caltrans staff who administer them.” That isn’t going to occur, although Caltrans ought to monitor visitors quantity to evaluate whether or not carpool hours may be lowered on the North Bay’s main commute and industrial route, which, to cite an outdated marketing campaign slogan, lastly options “three lanes all the best way.”
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