Civic Center Drive Detour in San Rafael to Be Adjusted for Parade

SAN RAFAEL, CA – To accommodate Marin County’s annual Veterans Day event in San Rafael, the Marin County Department of Public Works will implement a detour for traffic through the Civic Center Drive Improvement Project zone on Nov. 11.

The Veterans Day event, presented by the Marin County United Veterans Council and sponsored by the County of Marin, takes place at the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium, part of the Marin County Civic Center complex where the road improvement project is underway. The event begins with music at 9:30 a.m., and the official ceremony begins at 10 a.m.

From 7 a.m. until noon that day, the Avenue of the Flags will be closed, save for emergency vehicles, according to Marin County officials. The Veterans Memorial Auditorium will be accessible via the detour route to Memorial Drive. Changeable message boards and safety personnel will guide traffic along the corridor. While Avenue of the Flags will reopen after the event, it will be closed periodically for brief periods during the remainder of the construction project.

A key part of this construction project is the single-lane roundabout at the intersection of Civic Center Drive and Peter Behr Drive that will help improve safety and traffic congestion in the area. The next phase of the roundabout’s construction will begin on November 10, to be timed with the detour for Veterans Day. This will result in shifting the northbound lane of Civic Center Drive to the east side of the roundabout. That traffic pattern adjustment will require the Avenue of the Flags intersection to change from a three-way stop to a four-way stop.

The Memorial Drive will remain open for access to the Veterans Memorial Auditorium from that point onward, according to the County.

Significant work is expected to continue on the section of Civic Center Drive between the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) crossing and the roundabout through January 2017. The entire Civic Center Drive Improvement Project is scheduled for completion in early 2017.

A video that summarizes the improvement project can be seen below.

Improvement project overview map courtesy of the County of Marin