Caltrans Finishes Big Pave 2 Highway 101

Published:

District: 04 – Bay Area
Contact: Jeff Weiss
Phone: (510) 715-8770

Between Geyserville and Cloverdale

The final layer of asphalt added last week; only pavement striping remains

Sonoma County – Caltrans has completed the paving on “Big Pave 2,” a $62 million project to pave 11-miles of U.S. Highway 101 between Canyon Road in Geyserville and Route 128 in Cloverdale.  Only lane striping remains, which will occur over the next several weeks.  

2020-10-21 Big Pave 2 on U.S. Highway 101  Between Geyserville and Cloverdale map

Caltrans started paving on April 28, 2020, during the Covid-19 shelter in place ordinance. The light traffic allowed Caltrans to work around the clock, grinding away the old pavement and laying down six-and-a-half inches of fresh asphalt.

Within three weeks, workers had paved the entire 11-mile stretch of freeway.

During the last five months, Caltrans replaced damaged concrete, repaired drainage pipes and smoothed the pavement where asphalt and concrete connect at the bridges.

Caltrans will complete remaining works by repairing drainage pipes between Canyon Road and Healdsburg. This work was left over from “Big Pave 1” because environmental regulations require drainage work in the area to be performed in the dry season between June to Oct 2021.

Last week, Caltrans added a layer of open-graded pavement to the freeway in advance of the rainy season. Open-graded pavement is a top and final layer of asphalt which intended for smoother drive and safer roadway.  

As the name implies, Big Pave 2 was preceded by Big Pave 1, a $70 million project to pave 14-miles of Highway 101 between Windsor and Geyserville.  Big Pave 1 began in spring 2017 and was completed in fall 2018.