Editorial: Highway 37 plan attempts to connect needs, preservation

It may seem as though planning for widening Highway 37 is moving slower than traffic during the late-afternoon commute, but progress is being made.

The latest is consideration of a revised plan to lengthen and widen Tolay Creek Bridge near Sears Point to four lanes — adding two carpool and bus express lanes — that includes restoring the 3.5 miles of salt marsh that borders the busy highway.

Highway 37 is an important route for commuters and commercial vehicles. Over the years, its traffic has steadily grown, to the point today that the mostly two-lane highway has become the scene of one of the Bay Area’s worst traffic jams.

The traffic the highway is being asked to handle has long exceeded its two-lane constraints. Worse, the roadbed is slowly sinking in the bay mud foundation on which it was built.

The threat of sea-level rise makes improvements even more imperative. That the highway already has a history of being closed by flooding serves as a real warning.

Widening the highway has been talked about for years, but it’s been at a political stalemate pitting two significant public priorities — traffic safety and capacity — against protecting the bay lands that border the highway.

The inclusion of plans to restore Strip Marsh East as part of the plan is an attempt to span that divide.

According to the Caltrans-commissioned environmental impact report, the restoration plans will restore full tidal function and foster the creation of new wetlands, including a new salt marsh habitat.

It is estimated the planned work will enhance about 600 acres of now-degraded habitat.

The revised plan is progress, another step toward much-needed improvements.

Officials are working on raising the estimated $500 million needed for the job.

Any plan should include consideration of the ultimate solution — an elevated four-lane causeway from Novato and Vallejo. But the cash, right now, isn’t available to build it and waiting to amass that sum could take years.

Meanwhile, people who rely on the highway, many to get to work or to move goods, are stuck in weekday traffic jams that add as much as 90 minutes to their drive across the 21-mile long highway.

Progressing in phases is a prudent approach in addressing today’s traffic and safety problems.

Marin Supervisor Eric Lucan, whose Novato district includes the western end of Highway 37, says the plans are “getting closer” to one that makes sense, one that strikes a balance in cost, improving traffic and protecting and enhancing the environment.

One state transportation planner calls the revision “the first phase of the long-term project.”

A 2026 date for starting construction has been stated, but the revised plans first need to advance through a public comment period and gather necessary approvals.

Certainly, for those stuck in traffic, the bureaucratic progress is slower than they would like. But it is progress and the latest revision is a promising sign that the project is high on the radars of state and regional transportation agencies.