Caltrans says Highway 37 could open mid-week with flood repairs underway

Work was underway Saturday on a fix that state transportation officials hope will allow them to fully reopen Highway 37 in the early part of this week, curtailing the prolonged closure feared after floodwaters last week breached a nearby levee and spilled onto the westbound lanes.

Those lanes remained closed on Saturday in Marin County just east of Highway 101 and authorities were not able to specify when exactly they would be reopened.

Tony Tavares, Caltrans district director for the Bay Area, said work was expected to begin Sunday on a waterproof barrier alongside the highway that would shield it from flooding and allow the closed lanes to be reopened.

On Saturday, public works crews from Marin County led separate efforts to erect a temporary dam where the levee was breached, a step that authorities hoped to have completed by this Sunday. Workers also may need to pump out whatever water doesn’t recede on its own before building the roadway barrier, he said.

A midweek reopening would be a marked improvement over earlier estimates that the closure would last until at least Friday. The highway, traversing 21 miles between Novato and Vallejo, is a key east-west connector for North Bay commuters and weekend traffic.

“This has always been a ?complicated fix, but all agencies have been working 24-7 to get Highway 37 re-opened, and significant progress has been made in the last 24 hours,” said state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg. He added that crews building the temporary dam worked through Friday night and were expecting to do the same Saturday into Sunday.

Repairs to the failed levee on the highway’s south side could require up to a week and a half to complete. The breach sent a deluge of water into a nearby pasture and washed out the ground beneath a section of freight rail tracks running parallel to Highway 37. The levee is within the rail right of way and is owned by the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit agency, according to McGuire.

Runoff from last week’s storms and tidewater from San Pablo Bay led Caltrans to close the highway’s westbound lanes early Friday morning. The storm damage prompted Marin County to declare a state of emergency Friday evening.

Higher-than-normal tides could force closure of eastbound lanes as crews race to complete the repairs.

“The tides aren’t on our side,” McGuire said.

You can reach Staff Writer Will Schmitt at 707-521-5207 or will.schmitt@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @wsreports.