El Niño Emergency Project Will Shut Down Part of Highway 37 Next Week

One of the most-clogged stretches of freeway in the Bay Area, Highway 37, which links Marin, Sonoma, Napa, and Solano counties, will see some emergency upgrades next week as part of the state's emergency preparations for this super El Niño winter.

It's not normal for drivers to get less than two weeks notice about major freeway closures. But this is going to be anything but a normal winter in the Bay Area, and Caltrans is wasting no time in tackling the well-known issue of flooding on sections of State Route 37.

Next week, there will be three closures on 37, one lasting 55 hours, as Caltrans attempts to make some quick improvements aimed at avoiding or reducing that flooding as torrential rains are likely headed our way in the coming months. As the Napa Valley Register reports, the first will be an overnight closure of the westbound lanes on the highway's eastern half from 7 pm on Wednesday, October 21, until 4 am on October 22. That will happen again from 7 pm Thursday until 4 am Friday, and crews will be focused on constructing a new temporary median on the section between Mare Island/Vallejo and Sears Point Raceway.

*The blue section will be affected by the closure. Map via Caltrans*

Ultimately, after the closures, all traffic will shift into the eastbound lanes, with the westbound lanes closed.

Then, from 10 pm Friday, October 23 to 5 am Monday, October 26, the 10.4-mile stretch of Highway 37 between Mare Island and Sears Point will be closed in both directions as Caltrans works to raise sections of the roadway by 3 feet to address the chronic flooding.

During this time, traffic will be getting detoured through Napa and Sonoma counties, via Highways 29, 12, and 121.

Highway 37 between Novato and Sears Point will remain open.

The biggest part of the work will be on a 1,300-foot stretch, where concrete and asphalt will be poured to elevate the entire section of road.

The short notice on what seems like a large project is reflective of the high concern for what this winter will bring, officials say.

"This is an indication to me of the state-level urgency about El Niño,” says John Goodwin, spokesperson for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, speaking to the Chronicle.

After the initial work is completed on October 26, another weekend-long closure will come from 10 pm Friday, November 13 to 5 am Sunday, November 15. During that closure, crews will move the temporary median and shift traffic to the westbound lanes.

As SFist reported previously, plans to reroute or otherwise improve Highway 37 go back years. And as the Chronicle notes, next week's project is separate from one also in the works to turn the shoulders of Highway 37 between Mare Island and Sears Point into a toll road, in an effort to reduce congestion, with one free lane reserved only for carpools.

In total, the state has allocated $100 million to improvements and fixes on Highway 37, two thirds of which will be dedicated to the toll-road project.

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