Storms make Sonoma’s road repair goals difficult to attain

The almost unprecedented series of storms that hit Sonoma County this winter wrought considerable damage to local roads – as anyone who has driven on them can attest.

Potholes have widened to create driving hazards, vehicles have suffered damage and, perhaps most significantly, the county’s plans to upgrade almost 100 miles of roadway this year may be in jeopardy.

In the Sonoma Valley, travel along numerous roadways turned into a wild ride. Adobe Road for almost its entire 10-mile length from Highway 116 (Stage Gulch Road) to Old Redwood Highway was challenging, especially in the stretch from 116 to Frates, where Adobe takes a 90-degree turn to the west.

It was this stretch that Robin Gold, a bank branch manager in Sonoma, had been complaining about for months. “I have been saying it reminds me of a ski run trying to avoid the moguls!” she said. And on Feb. 13, the road got the better of her vehicle. “I ended up having to get both front tires replaced and a new rim.”

Tire damage was also reported on Watmaugh Road when the rural byway was being used as a detour around flooding on Highway 121 in Schellville. A three-foot sink hole opened up on Keiser Road in Kenwood, and Sonoma Mountain Road – oft-cited as the worst road in the county – didn’t escape still more mutilation from the pelting storms.

And that’s to say nothing about the landslides and road collapses that affected numerous West County roads, including Highway 1, Cazadero Road outside of Monte Rio, and Green Valley Road between Graton and Occidental.

“We consider the whole incident to be, start to finish, about four storms,” said Susan Klassen, director of the county’s Transportation and Public Works (TPW), last week – before a smaller storm moved in for the weekend.

In January, after the Board of Supervisors made its first emergency declaration on Jan. 8, representatives from state and federal agencies evaluated the damage and came up with a dollar estimate for repairs. That preliminary estimate was $7.8 million, but since that time three more storm events passed through the North Bay. A more recent estimate of $16.4 million was offered by TPW last week, but final figures are weeks if not months away.

“We’re waiting for things to stabilize – the ground is still moving, things are still sliding, and the numbers are still changing,” said Klassen.

Emergency funds to repair storm damage are hoped for from both California’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), but how much and when remains unknown.

Whether the millions of dollars of storm damage will affect TPW’s plans for county road upgrades remains to be seen. The department’s road budget for 2016-2017 was $67 million, with $21.8 million earmarked for upgrading almost 100 miles of county road – out of a total of 1,379 miles.

Road resurfacing is based upon a number of factors, including present condition, how many people use the road, and to what purpose it serves. With each year’s budget a list of priority roads is released, those in most immediate need of repair.

The current list for road resurfacing planned for the summer includes several stretches in Sonoma Valley beside the Adobe Road sections, including Fifth Street West from Leveroni to city limits; Eighth Street East from the railroad tracks at Highway 121 to Napa Road, and Napa Road from that intersection to Highway 12; Arnold Drive from Leveroni to Craig; Boyes Boulevard from Arnold Drive to Highway 12; Grove Street to Arnold Drive; and a half-mile section of Lovall Valley Road just past Fourth Street East.

“We recognize that this whole winter extravaganza of storms has really impacted the overall condition of many, many roads,” stressed Klassen. “But while we’re waiting for the state and federal government to come back and give us a better idea of what they’re willing to pay for, we are out there with our staff trying to finish off debris clean up, get lanes open where we can, patch as many potholes as we can – we’ve been doing that for the last couple weeks.”

She made it a point to add, “My guys have been working awfully hard.”

Supervisor David Rabbitt, through whose Second District Adobe Road runs, insisted the county was giving adequate attention to roads. “The Board of Supervisors has dedicated more General Fund dollars to pavement preservation than any county in California – $65 million over the last four years – and has paved/resurfaced 292 miles of roads. You would be hard pressed to find a county that has paved more miles of roads.”

Klassen, too, acknowledges the support from the Supervisors.

“I guess I would just say without those efforts, it would be even worse,” said Klassen.

Klassen was unable to speculate on the impact of the winter storms on the summer road repair budget. “Until we get a handle on what funds we need to recover, I can’t really say where that money’s going to come from, whether it will have any impact on what we had planned to do in 2017 or not,” said Klassen. “It’s just too early, and we haven’t had those discussions with the board yet.”

Contact Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.