SMART Expected to Approve $103M Contract

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit district is expected to approve a $103 million contract Monday for the construction of the rail project between Santa Rosa and San Rafael.

SMART has completed negotiations with Stacy and Witbeck Inc. and Herzog Contracting Corporation to build the first phase of the project, SMART's general manager Farhad Mansourian said.

The SMART district also said the first phase of the project has been extended an additional 1.5 miles north to include service to a north Santa Rosa station on Guerneville Road and the repair of the Novato Creek Bridge.

The Guerneville Road station is near the Coddingtown mall and near several apartment complexes.

Also included in the first phase is a train station in north Novato at Atherton Avenue.

The first phase of the rail line will run 38.5 miles between downtown San Rafael and the north Santa Rosa station.

SMART Vice-Chair Judy Arnold said the construction contract the board will consider Monday morning at its meeting in Santa Rosa "gets more done for less money."

Mansourian said if the board approves the contract Monday, construction will start the next day.

The initial train and bike and pedestrian project was to run 70 miles between Cloverdale and Larkspur. Voters in both counties approved a one-quarter percent sales tax to help finance the project.

The scope of the project was reduced because of a funding shortfall, prompting the

to gather signatures on petitions to repeal the tax and put it on the ballot this year, most likely in November.

The question of whether RepealSMART needs 15,000, 30,000 or 39,000 signatures is still under dispute and may be decided in court.

— Bay City News Service