Springs RAC gets easement update

Construction of the first phase of the Highway 12 improvement project could begin as soon as late summer, according to Phil Demery, Director of Sonoma County’s Department of Transportation and Public Works. Demery and the department’s Roads Division Manager, Kevin Howze, outlined plans at last week’s meeting of The Springs Redevelopment Advisory Committee (RAC).
The first phase of the project will extend approximately three-quarters of a mile on Highway 12 from Encinas Lane (near Agua Caliente Creek) to Vallejo Avenue (across from the Boyes post office). It will create curbs, gutters, handicapped-accessible sidewalks, and pedestrian scale streetlights. On-street parking will no longer be permitted, allowing the wide, paved road shoulders to be used as bicycle lanes.
The County has already acquired right-of-way easements for roadway improvements on 38 of the 42 properties along the stretch of highway in the initial project area. Obtaining the final four easements is now the department’s highest priority, said Demery.
Of the four remaining easements needed, County officials have so far been unable to contact one owner, Wallace and Linda Van Note, of Mulford Lane at Highway 12, and have enlisted a private investigator to find them.
If the County has to go to court, Demery said that the legal process could be completed by July 15. At that point, the project could go out to bid, with construction starting about 60 days later.
Once construction begins, Demery estimates that the bulk of the work in Phase I can be completed in a period of five or six months. The work will be done a block at a time to keep two lanes of traffic flowing and to minimize disruption.
Demery projects that the second phase of the Highway 12 improvement project will begin in 2010. Now in the preliminary plan stage, Phase II will extend north to Agua Caliente Road. About four right-of-way easements have been obtained so far for this second phase of work.