Sonoma County Department of Transportation and Public Works (TPW) is working on several infrastructure projects for the unincorporated area of Fitch Mountain during the ongoing COVID-19 shelter-in-place order.
TPW Director Johannes Hoevertsz is working on sequencing in all four significant projects within the next year, he said.
The department is working on replacing or repairing eight culverts around the mountain, one of which is extensive and runs beneath the road and a house, Hoevertsz said. Though the coronavirus is complicating efforts, the department is looking to have all the culvert work complete ahead of the rains later this year.
Geotechnical boring and design work continues on the two areas of Fitch Mountain Road known as “The Slump” and “The Slide” where movement of the hillside has impacted the road. The Federal Highway Administration previously funded the projects for the two areas of much needed repairs and now the design engineering work is progressing.
The 2020-21 Pavement Preservation Program approved in May 2019 slated $37 million in county, state and other local funds towards repairing 51 miles of county roads. Included in that number will be 2.7 miles of North and South Fitch Mountain Road. That work is projected to begin in 2021, Hoeverstz said.
Vegetation management is in the forefront of many peoples’ minds as the rains lessen and the weather is heating up. Hoevertsz said he wished he could use a masticator on Fitch Mountain, but the proximity to houses, fences and utilities around Fitch Mountain Road means the work all has to be accomplished by hand. The Sonoma County Youth Ecology Corps is scheduled to come out to Fitch Mountain later this year for some enhanced vegetation management in the right of way and the possibility exists for some work sooner, depending on the progress of the shelter in place order. TPW has also been working with the Fitch Mountain Association to develop some ways in which the County and residents can collaborate on vegetation management, such as Fitch Mountain chipper days.
With so many proposed projects for a relatively small part of the county, TPW has its hands full to get them all accomplished and sequenced in, Hoevsertsz said, but Fitch Mountain remains a priority for the Fourth District and for its county supervisor, James Gore. For more information email di*******@so***********.org.
James Gore is the County Supervisor for Sonoma County’s Fourth District.
