Infrastructure Bill May be Key to Highway 37 Future

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As the rainy season winds down across the North Bay, the hard work of recovery from the storms of the past winter continues. And nowhere is the vulnerability of the region’s infrastructure more obvious than along Highway 37, the critical corridor between Novato and Vallejo.

As congress debates an infrastructure bill later this year, local and state officials are hoping an infusion of federal dollars may help shore up the highway for the future.

Flooding this past winter closed the road just east of Novato for several days, as floodwaters breached a protective levee and damaged nearby rail lines.

Local and state transportation agencies have banded together to come up with alternatives for the future, but all agree the huge costs of raising the road in the face of climate change-induced floods, will carry a price tag of hundred of millions, to billions of dollars.

Meantime, U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman, whose district includes the highway, is pledging to work hard at the federal level to pass an infrastructure bill, that would included millions, or even billions of dollars for Highway 37 repair and improvement.