Sonoma County announces 2023 road paving season, encourages drivers to plan ahead, go slow and use detours

The Sonoma County Department of Public Infrastructure today announced that the Summer 2023 road resurfacing program is officially underway, including pavement treatment on 50 miles of road segments across 98 separate county-maintained roads. Work to be completed this season involves a combination of roads identified for the ongoing Pavement Preservation Program and roads that qualify for repair as part of the Fire Damage Recovery Paving Project supported by PG&E settlement funds. The cost of all paving work planned for Summer 2023 is approximately $29 million.

“Road paving and rehabilitation is essential to maintaining public safety, economic vitality and access to services,” said Supervisor Chris Coursey, chair of the Board of Supervisors. “We want to remind all roadway users to please plan ahead this summer, know your detour, and most importantly slow down when encountering road crews in your area.” 

The Board of Supervisors proactively contributes more discretionary dollars to road repairs than any other California county. Since 2012, the Board has invested more than $203 million to improve 516 miles of roads totaling 38 percent of the county-maintained network, the largest county-maintained road network in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“Our unincorporated road system touches almost every citizen in our county and it is a vital asset worth maintaining for future generations,” said Supervisor David Rabbitt, director of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority and member of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. “I am proud of the investment our board has made over the years and look forward to continuing the efforts to maintain our road system which is a core service to our community. Our contractors and crews will be in your community soon, please slow for the construction zone.”

According to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Sonoma County’s Pavement Condition Index has improved eight points since 2012, from 44 to 52 out of 100. The county’s primary road network of minor arterials and major collectors was determined to be in good condition with an average PCI of 76. The county’s minor collectors and local roads are in poor condition with a PCI of 55 and 39, respectively. Projections indicate that an additional $4.3 million of minimal annual investment would be required to prevent further road network decline over the next ten years.   

Because state gas tax funding for roads is distributed based on the number of vehicle registrations in a county rather than the number of road miles, rural counties receive disproportionately less road funding. Other funding sources for county road repairs include the Measure L transient occupancy tax and Measure M sales tax.

In the absence of General Fund contributions, the county’s ability to reduce the backlog of deferred maintenance and improve its Pavement Condition Index scores would be limited. Deferred maintenance of roads causes a faster rate of pavement deterioration from water and traffic over time, and ultimately costs more to repair or rehabilitate. 

In 2014, the Sonoma County Long-Term Roads Plan was approved by the Board of Supervisors to establish a methodology for selecting roads for paving and outline a funding strategy in order to accelerate the county’s repaving efforts. Sonoma County’s Long-Term Roads Plan aligns with the Resilient Infrastructure pillar of the county’s Five-Year Strategic Plan to make critical investments in the county road network.

To view a map of county paving projects in 2022 and 2023, please visit: 
https://sonomacounty.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=9aca4606b26a4de3a3dd1b16aa59234d 

For more information about how roads are selected for paving, please visit: 
http://sonomacounty.ca.gov/TPW/Roads/Services/Pavement-Preservation/Project-Selection/. 

Sonoma County residents may submit a road project for future consideration by calling (707) 565-2550 or by email to SPI@Sonoma-County.org. 

Non-emergency road requests may be submitted and tracked via: 
https://sonomacountyca.citysourced.com/. 

A current road closures map, including registration to receive alerts, is at: https://roadclosures-sonomacounty.hub.arcgis.com/.  

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Media Contact: 
Dan Virkstis 
publicaffairs@sonoma-county.org 
(707) 565-3040
575 Administration Drive, Suite 104A
Santa Rosa, CA 95403