Dick Spotswood: Avoid costly short-term thinking on Highway 37 project

August 13, 2022

“Do it right” was the name of a handbook we were assigned to read upon entering high school. It’s an apt description of the way planners at Caltrans plus Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties should approach one of the North Bay’s major traffic congestion points: Highway 37 between Novato and Interstate 80 in Vallejo.

The 21-mile route has two sections. The first is from Novato eastward to Sears Point, the junction with state Route 12 to the Sonoma Valley. Due to sea level rise, it’s already been closed on occasions when high tides and torrential rains resulted in severe flooding. The worst-case scenario is a 7-foot rise in bay waters by 2100.

The second section of Highway 37 runs 10 miles from Sears Point to Vallejo. It’s the route much of Marin’s workforce uses to travel from affordable homes in Solano County to well-paying jobs. It’s one lane in each direction until the Napa River is crossed west of Mare Island. Like its western counterpart, it’s subject to San Francisco Bay’s ever-rising waters.

The road needs to be rebuilt to make it resilient from the effects of climate change and to increase traffic capacity to reduce peak-period congestion.

Caltrans suggests a two-step process for the segment from Sears Point to the Napa River Bridge. The first step: build a nearly half-billion-dollar “temporary” conventional four-lane freeway. Realistically, that’ll balloon to $1 billion. Spending big bucks for a 10- to 20-year fix that will then be demolished is fiscal folly.

There is little disagreement that the tidal bayside Sears Point-Vallejo section should be two-lanes in each direction. There’s also a near-unanimous understanding that the long-term solution is an elevated highway like I-80’s Yolo Causeway west of Sacramento.

Short-term thinking is often an expensive mistake. Now is the time to do it right with the agreed-upon permanent fix. A causeway isn’t cheap, costing $6 billion to $8 billion. Wait 20 years and that amount will double. Now is the time for a full-court press to secure the funding. There’s President Biden’s trillion-dollar infrastructure fund that’ll otherwise be gobbled up by both blue and red states seeking cash to rebuild antiquated infrastructure. Couple that with California’s one-time post-pandemic $100 billion budget surplus.

The required local match is to electronically collect a bridge-like toll on the Sears Point-to-Vallejo stretch. It’s back-to-the-future, as the highway was initially built as a private toll road.

Credit state Sen. Mike McGuire, whose district includes part of the North Bay, for getting the ball rolling by securing an initial $20 million toward making Marin’s Highway 37 segment more resilient to flooding.

U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, whose district also includes part of the North Bay, calls the causeway a model 21st century infrastructure project. Huffman says the environmental benefits from the long-term fix done now will eliminate much of the bureaucratic “green tape” that’s roadblocked California’s big infrastructure projects. He describes the causeway project as “environmentally self-mitigating.”

The benefit from building the elevated four-lane highway as a one-step effort isn’t just about not frittering away a billion dollars for a highway that will be eventually demolished. It delivers a safe four-lane divided highway while protecting a marsh that is a natural barrier when bay waters rise.

How to mitigate a road toll for lower-income workers? There’s zero public transit from Vallejo to Novato. Let’s provide free — you read that right — Golden Gate Transit bus service from Vallejo to Novato’s SMART station. Use the highway toll as funding.

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SMART’s general manager, Eddy Cumins, reports his board unanimously agreed to “explore” a scheduled minivan service covering the “last mile” from its North Santa Rosa Sonoma Airport station directly to Charles Schulz Sonoma County Airport. It’s a good move given that 650,000 passengers are projected to use the airport this year.


By:  Dick Spotswood
Source: Marin Independent Journal