State transportation officials on Thursday will weigh whether to invest $100 million in one of the Bay Area’s most ambitious transportation projects: the effort to raise a 21-mile highway before it sinks into the sea.
The overhaul of Highway 37 — a key route for commuters headed from Interstate 80 in Vallejo to the Highway 101 junction in Novato — would repair bridges, restore tidal habitat and replace a flood-prone stretch of road with an elevated causeway. And it could have immediate practical benefits. For the first phase, Caltrans aims to widen a 10-mile segment between Mare Island and Sears Point, where the road currently constricts to one lane in each direction. It slices along the San Pablo Bay shoreline, where ducks and starlings flit through mucky grass while motorists have the sense their tires are right at water level.
“This part of the corridor is notorious for congestion, flooding and traffic accidents,” said Joshua Arce, executive director of the California Alliance for Jobs and a leader of the Fix 37 Now coalition. Its members are mounting on the state to move forward with the highway megaproject, initially by setting aside funding to put construction contracts out to bid…