Another Exprs Lanes project Sonoma -101

The San Francisco Bay area Metro Transportn Commission (MTC) and Sonoma Co CA will shortly announce selection of a consultant to study private sector construction of Express Lanes in the middle of the state route-101 freeway in Sonoma County (a 500,000 pop county on the northwest fringe of the San Francisco Bay area). CA-101 is a 4-lane divided north-south spinal freeway from the early 60s and is the county's 'main street' in that it has many closely spaced interchanges and accomodates large numbers of shortish trips within the county. It also provides the region's best connections to downtown San Fran via the Golden Gate Bridge and to the east Bay area via the Richmond-San Rafael bridge (I-580).

The study will cover a 32km segment of CA-101 from the Marin Co line to about 3km north of Santa Rosa, the county's largest town. Recent annual average daily traffic counts range between 61k and 113k at various points along the study area, so the 4-lanes are slow moving for many hours each day, according to the director of the country's transport authority Melinda B. Grosch. This is no bedroom community. The county already has a balance of jobs and workers and pretty equal traffic flows north and south morning and evening, and the congestion is no longer solely a getting to-&-from work phenomenon. The county has a large Hewlett-Packard factory and other high-tech workplaces and has major areas zoned for new commerical and industrial development around the county airport and large new housing developments. Caltrans once planned to rebuild the highway to 8-lanes divided but this would have required demolishing large numbers of businesses and houses in several towns. There wasn't the money or the political support to do anything.

Support for Exprs Lanes & rail: Now with congestion worse there's support for the county plan for widening CA-101 to 6-lanes with the inner 2-lanes as toll express lanes together with a scheme to develop some kind of rail service along an old rail line parallel to the highway and connecting to Bay ferry terminals. A Caltrans costing put the widening of 101 to 6-lanes for HOV at $384m with minimal interchange work. Grosch says many of the interchanges really need improvement because they have short ramps and tight turns and there's a plan for an extra interchange. In Marin county to the south the 101 highway is already 6-lanes and 8-lanes and HOV is being developed.

Caltrans has funds for allocated for widening 9km of the highway as HOV lanes by 2001 but the local authorities want the study to investigate whether a 32km or larger time variable toll express lanes project would be better. A project documents states: "The product of the Sonoma 101 study will be an assessment of whether or not to pursue the development of toll lanes in the median of 101 and, if so, what would be a potential variable toll structure. The study will focus on estimating the demand for such a variable-priced facility, determining the effects of pricing on travel behavior in the corridor, including transit ridership, and then evaluating the operation and financial feasibility of the project."

It cites 91-Express Lanes in s. CA as an "effective example" of investor financed variable pricing. The study for which $0.2m is available must be completed in 9 months. (Contacts: Karen Frick MTC 510 464 7704 kfrick@mtc.dst.ca.us Melina Grosch Sonoma Co 707 527 1943)