Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 697 into law Wednesday, allowing expedited construction on a projected $500 million project to widen part of Highway 37 as it continues to subside into Bay Area marshland.
The bill, authored by Assemblymember Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, carves out exceptions to endangered species law so that construction on the roadway can have a larger window.
Wilson, Caltrans officials and local transportation agencies have said that adding an additional lane to the roadway will reduce congestion. Many of the drivers are low-income commuters who travel from homes in Vallejo and Solano County — where housing is relatively affordable — to jobs in Marin and Sonoma counties — where housing is unaffordable for many. But the expressway connecting them to those jobs has a limited lifespan: Documents previously reported on by The Sacramento Bee show that it is sinking into the marsh and that it’s surrounded by sinking levees and berms as sea level rises and threatens to inundate the highway…