Transportation – Enviro Updates

Crews start work on long-awaited Highway 101 bridge

April 10, 2026

Natalie Hanson, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Crews will break ground Saturday in Santa Rosa on a long-awaited bike and pedestrian bridge over Highway 101, beginning the process toward building a new corridor for people traveling by foot and bicycle.

Santa Rosa City Council unanimously approved a $37.6 million construction contract, awarded to Ghilotti Construction Co., to begin work on the bridge by summer 2027. The bridge, stretching across the six-lane highway, is planned to help link commercial, government, employment and health care hubs and connect to the SMART passenger rail line via a crossing at Jennings Avenue.

The Highway 101 project has long been identified as a critical link in Santa Rosa’s bicycle and pedestrian network spanning Edwards to Elliott Avenues, connecting the Coddingtown area to the Santa Rosa Junior College area.

The city says the project will improve safety while reducing travel times for students, commuters and residents.

Transportationbike/pedestrian bridge, Highway 101 bridge, pedestrians, traffic, walkable community

Santa Rosa cyclists enjoy new parking, rideshare opportunities

April 7, 2026

Natalie Hanson, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Santa Rosa cyclists are starting to see more bike facilities on some of the city’s busiest throughways, which city leaders credit to ongoing work to improve transportation opportunities.

Drivers and riders on Mendocino Avenue may have noticed new bike parking racks placed at different points along the throughway, particularly closer to downtown and near the heaviest trafficked part of the business corridor. The racks, built in an upside down “U” shape, are intended to offer cyclists new options in the public right-of-way. These are part of the city’s improvements between 4th Street and 10th Street, completed as part of the city’s Capital Improvement Program project which included pavement maintenance and new Class II bike lanes, along with similar work on several other downtown streets.

City spokesperson Misti Wood said the city obtained grant funding through the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s Transportation Fund for Clean Air program.

Transportationbicycle infrastructure, bicycle-friendly

Tracks blocked from trail takeover

April 3, 2026

Austin Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A minor legal defeat suffered by the Great Redwood Trail Agency is being hailed as a major cause for celebration among some North Bay railroad enthusiasts.

A February ruling by Surface Transportation Board, an obscure but powerful federal agency tasked with regulating the nation’s freight rail network, has, in an indirect way, breathed new life into train buffs’ hopes for a return, someday, of rail service to communities along the Highway 101 corridor from Cloverdale to Willits.

The ruling is the upshot of a legal move that began two years ago when the public agency spearheading the planning and construction of most of the 320-mile Great Redwood Trail between San Francisco and Humboldt bays filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board. The filing related to a different section of North Coast railroad — the Mendocino Railway line, popularly known as the Skunk Train, which runs 40 miles west to east, from Fort Bragg to Willits.

The petition sought the board’s authorization for what is called a third-party, “adverse” abandonment, part of a formal step that’s been used to convert mothballed segments of the nation’s vast network of commercial rail lines into trails over the past several decades.

Land Use, TransportationGreat Redwood Trail, railroad, Skunk Train, trains

SMART to break ground on extension to Healdsburg

March 22, 2026

Austin Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Boring can be interesting — especially when it signals that SMART has broken ground on its much-anticipated nine-mile track extension from Windsor to Healdsburg.

Field work for that project is set to begin Monday, March 30, the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit agency announced Friday.

For this early phase of the work, which is expected to continue through April, technicians will use a drill rig to extract soil samples along the rail line’s right-of-way.

“Watch for crews drilling soil samples,” the city of Healdsburg posted on social media, “so the train will be on firm footing.”

TransportationSMART, trains

Sonoma County BOS endorses SMART tax renewal measure

March 3, 2026

Emma Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has thrown its support behind a ballot measure seeking to renew a quarter-cent sales tax underwriting the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit system.

A board majority on Tuesday voted to place the measure on the June 2 ballot, consolidating it with the primary election and, in a second vote, authorized Chair Rebecca Hermosillo to submit a letter in support of the measure.

Four of Sonoma County’s five elected supervisors voted in favor of both motions. Supervisor David Rabbitt, who serves on SMART’s board of directors, was absent Tuesday. In a text Rabbitt said he was in Washington D.C. on behalf of a few local agencies including the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.

SMART’s sales tax, which raises about $51 million annually, was passed by voters in 2008 and is set to expire in 2029. The new measure asks Sonoma and Marin voters to renew the tax for 30 years.

Transportationballot measure, public transit, SMART, trains

Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition appeals Santa Rosa Plaza drive lane project

February 24, 2026

Natalie Hanson, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition is appealing Santa Rosa Plaza’s proposal to add a drive lane and new parking spaces in front of the downtown mall.

City Zoning Administrator Conor McKay approved the “minor design review” earlier this month for a one-way lane curving toward the mall’s B Street entrance with 10 parking spaces. The design would replace part of the plaza in front of the main entrance at the intersection of B and Fourth streets, where the hand statue, Agraria, once stood.

Eris Weaver, executive director of the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, filed an appeal Feb. 19 which she said received support from various members of the public.

Weaver said earlier this month she did not find the project consistent with goals to make the downtown area more walkable and bikeable. She said in an interview Tuesday, Feb. 24, that the proposal presents various safety and quality of life issues which the city must resolve.

“Santa Rosa has been moving toward a downtown that is more bike and pedestrian friendly,” Weaver said. “Why do they need more parking? It feels like they’re trying to sneak something by the public.’’

Transportationbicycle-friendly, pedestrian safety, Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, walkability

City prioritizes pedestrian bridge project

February 14, 2026

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Groundbreaking work on a long-awaited bike and pedestrian bridge over Highway 101 in Santa Rosa could be as little as a month away after the project this past week cleared a critical funding decision at the City Council.

Costs to build the 14.5-foot-wide, 1,000-foot-long bridge linking Elliott and Edwards avenue just north of Santa Rosa Junior College have soared nearly 30% above the city’s engineering estimate.

But council members, facing a critical deadline, and hearing from top officials that the landmark project would only get more expensive if delayed longer, endorsed reallocating money from various transportation projects to get the project rolling.

Transportationbike/pedestrian bridge, Highway 101 bridge, walkable community