Construction near Sonoma State University campus is having a major impact on how students, faculty and staff are navigating local streets. And more changes are on the way.

One lane on Petaluma Hill Road, the  main road many use to to get to campus, will be closed for construction work starting today, causing major delays. Residents and students should start to plan accordingly and make sure they have an accurate travel time. There will be traffic control measures in place to try to help the situation. 

University District developer Brookfield Homes’ will begin work today to install water mains for its housing development on Rohnert Park Expressway and Petaluma Hill Road. The work is expected to continue for an estimated 12 to 15 days, with the possibility of running longer than that. Brookfield Residential said this project may run into mid-March and will most likely cause some significant delays on Petaluma Hill Road and along the northern border of Sonoma State campus. The instillation of the new water mains will affect the intersection of Rohnert Park Expressway and the Anderson Ranch Driveway, causing significant delays as the work requires shutting down northbound Petaluma Hill Road, making it a one-lane road until the project is completed. 

In an email sent out campuswide, Joyce Lopez, vice president for administration and finance at Sonoma State, said students should “make necessary adjustments to allow for additional time arriving to and departing from campus.” 

This construction comes almost a week after the south side of Rohnert Park Expressway, from Kerry Road to Petaluma Hill Road, needed traffic control measures to allow new streetlights to be installed. 

The closure of Petaluma Hill Road has many students concerned about their travel times.Rachel Mounce, an SSU sophomore, who takes Petaluma Hill Road to work, said, “It’s already a two-lane street and on normal days when there is minimal traffic, it can make me late to work, or late to class when I am returning from work. Imagining it with any more traffic than it already has because of construction will make everything so much more stressful.” Isabelle Briseno, the president of Alpha Xi Delta, said, “The construction is going to cause such a delay and added time for driving to and from school when the road is already backed up.”