Press Release
Posted:
Washington – Today, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) announced that three projects in Sonoma County will receive a total of $3,014,279 in funding from the government funding agreement that will be considered by Congress later this week. Rep. Thompson secured $14,992,105 total for projects in California’s Fourth District.
“Community Project Funding requests allow our region to receive funding from the federal government for projects that will help improve our communities and invest in local priorities,” said Thompson. “I worked with partners in Sonoma County to identify these projects as priorities that would help protect roads against the impact of climate change, improve intersections while protecting pedestrians, and provide law enforcement with additional tools to keep our communities safe. I look forward to seeing this funding help advance these important projects.”
The projects in Sonoma County are:
• $1,116,279 for the Highway 37 Tolay Creek Bridge Replacement and Restoration Project
• $1,000,000 for the Highway 116/West Cotati Intersection Safety Improvement Project
• $898,000 for the Santa Rosa Community Violence Reduction Project
Background on these projects can be found below.
The Highway 37 Tolay Creek Bridge Replacement and Restoration Project will replace the existing 60-foot-long two-lane SR 37 bridge over Tolay Creek. The new bridge will: allow for implementation of the lower Sonoma Creek Baylands strategy that includes Tolay Restoration, examine feasibility of designing long-term project elevations, support the transition to long-term project elevations consistent with integration of SMART including possible grade separation, provide a barrier separated Class I bicycle path to close a gap in the Bay Trail and improve safety, all within the timeline of the Sears Point to Mare Island Interim Project delivery. The proposed project will have multiple benefits including: relieving congestion and improving safety in the corridor by fixing a bottleneck that creates long queues, delays, and crashes; allowing for an increase in tidal prism that is needed for restoration of the San Pablo Baylands as identified in the Sonoma Creek Baylands Strategy to mitigate for projected sea-level rise in the corridor; closing a gap in connectivity and safety for bicyclists and pedestrians on the San Francisco Bay Trail.; reducing greenhouse gas emissions; improving safety and quality of life; and improving access for equity priority communities.
The Highway 116/West Cotati Intersection Safety Improvement Project would address safety issues by re-aligning the Highway 116/West Cotati Intersection by installing a new traffic signal and associated turn lanes to provide refuge for turning vehicles and bicyclists, as well as greatly improving connectivity and safety for bicycles and pedestrians through the addition of safe crossing points. This project is also located within a designated priority development area (PDA) and will remove a key barrier to much needed housing adjacent to existing public transit for working families. The intersection of Highway 116/West Cotati Avenue is at a highly skewed angle, is unsignalized and requires turning vehicles to stop in the same lane as high-speed traffic, leading to high-speed rear end collisions and fatalities. This project addresses a very dangerous intersection and a section of state highway also has no crossing points, which prevents the safe crossing of pedestrians and bicyclists.
The Santa Rosa Community Violence Reduction Project would allow the Santa Rosa Police Department to establish a Real Time Crime Center (RTCC), which will provide immediate information to enhance SRPD’s ability to detect, investigate, and prevent violent criminal activity. New technology and equipment will augment the City’s community policing efforts by providing SRPD officers with technologies and equipment that will help them respond to crime events more efficiently, more deliberately, with improved operational intelligence, and with a proactive emphasis on officer, citizen, and community safety.