Highway 37 debate shifts into gear

The estimated cost to fix the highway is $1.4B to $4.2B.|

The future of Highway 37 includes an elevated roadway – and possibly tolls.

Both concepts surfaced more than once Wednesday during a town hall meeting hosted by 1st District Supervisor Susan Gorin.

The panel included representatives from the Bay Conservation Development Commission, Caltrans, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Sonoma County Transportation Authority, and the SR 37 Policy Committee, along with two advocates of a private-public partnership on the portion from Sears Point to Mare Island. About 70 area residents attended the forum.

After being shut down for 27 days in February because of flooding near Novato Creek, it’s almost a foregone conclusion that Highway 37 will have to be elevated at some point in the near future as expected sea-level rise would eventually render the vital commute artery impassable in decades to come.

But the sticking point is how to pay to elevate the heavily traveled road that runs through three counties – Marin, Sonoma and Solano and touches Napa County. The cost to elevate the road, according to 2nd District Supervisor David Rabbitt, is somewhere between $1.4 billion and $4.2 billion.

Calling it “an expensive endeavor,” Rabbitt said Highway 37 is the second biggest problem in all four counties. “But the needs are greater than the resources,” he said.

Rabbitt said Sonoma County’s biggest problem is Highway 101, Marin’s is the 101-580 bottleneck while Solano’s is the Cordelia Junction – so Highway 37 isn’t at the top of anybody’s list.

But it’s a strong second.

And Rabbitt broached the “T” word – tolls.

He wasn’t the only panel member talking tolls.

Suzanne Smith, director of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority, also said, “tolling is a real aspect we may have to consider.”

She pointed out that losing Highway 37 to sea level rise isn’t an option. And it’s going to be expensive.

“You don’t get a check for $1 billion,” she said. “You have to gather it in pieces from different sources.”

Smith outlined a strategy that included a corridor plan that could be unveiled in June or July after two months of data collection and assessment.

“The corridor plan would even include a ‘no build assessment,”’ she said.

If Highway 37 was closed, it would put severe pressure on other Bay Area roads including I-80, I-580, and state highways 101, 116, 121, 12 and 29.

Jake MacKenzie, a Rohnert Park councilmember and chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, warned that big capital projects are very competitive.

This is the first serious engineering project on Highway 37 that he can remember.

“Remember, when Highway 37 was built in 1928, it was a toll road. It cost 35 cents,” he said. Then the state bought the road and did away with the toll.

Dan McElhinney, Caltrans’ chief deputy district director for the Bay Area, told the audience that Caltrans is responsible for 1,400 miles of roads in the nine-county area. And that the roads sustained a lot of storm damage this winter.

“We have 110 locations in the Bay Area that sustained $250 million in damage,” he said. Just in Sonoma County, Caltrans has 12 sites and an estimated $22 million in damages.

“Highway 37 is more than we expected. How can we make it more resilient to climate change?” he asked. He said the flooding along Novato Creek was a combination of the heavy rains, an eight-foot super king tide and failing levees.

Crews worked around the clock raising the roadway two feet. “Our contractor started on Feb. 14 and finished in nine days. We thought it would take 35 days,” he said.

After the government agencies had their say, Ed Diffendal, from United Bridge Partners, and Linda Figg, from the Figg Bridge Group, told the crowd that they have been studying the bottleneck problems between Sears Point and Mare Island for about three years and they could build a toll road adding two more lanes in about 30 months using no state or federal money.

Diffendal said the proposed tolls on that section would be similar to, but never higher, than area toll bridges.

Email Bill at bill.hoban@sonomanews.com.

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