PD Editorial: Should Highway 37 become a private toll road? Give us your feedback

It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see two things in the future for Highway 37: traffic and flooding. And the worse the flooding gets, the worse the traffic will become until Highway 37 is possibly closed entirely. Officials say that sea level rise threatens that very outcome.

Commuters got a taste of that this winter when flooding on Highway 37 near the Highway 101 interchange became so serve that this vital east-west link was closed for nearly a week on two occasions, forcing drivers to find alternative routes where few exist, causing backups and delays. But even without the flooding concerns, the congestion problems of Highway 37 are well documented. According to figures released last week, the 21-mile trip from Novato to Vallejo should take about 20 minutes. But it’s now taking an average of 50 minutes to go west during the commute hours and 100 minutes to go east. Something has to change.

What that is, however, is not clear. As important as Highway 37 is, it’s not the top priority transportation project in any of the four counties - Marin, Napa, Solano and Sonoma - most effected. And it’s not a major priority for the state either. According to transportation officials, California would not have enough money set aside to meet the estimated $1.2 billion cost of improving the key central section of Highway 37 until the year 2088.

Transportation leaders and elected officials from all four counties have been conferring for months about what to do. But the progress of this Highway 37 policy committee has been slow and the solutions remain foggy.

One proposal put forward by United Bridge Partners, a Foster City-based private investment firm, calls for privatizing the road and having the highway improvements funded by a toll to drivers. Under that scenario, the work could be completed in as soon as eight years.

But some electeds and residents are understandably wary of relinquishing ownership of this key public asset to a private entity and are holding out hope of another solution, possibly a public option also funded by a toll. Either way, a consultant hired by the policy group says that the only way to fund this project would be to charge a toll - or wait until 2088.

No matter the outcome, the path forward is complicated and requires public input.

Toward that end, readers are invited to a public forum on Wednesday on the Highway 37 dilemma. Participating in this conversation will be Rep. Mike Thompson, state Sen. Bill Dodd, Assemblyman Marc Levine, Sonoma County Supervisors David Rabbitt and Susan Gorin, Metropolitan Transportation Committee Chairman Jake Mackenzie and Sonoma County Transportation Authority Executive Director Suzanne Smith. Moderating the panel will be Press Democrat Editorial Director Paul Gullixson and John Burns, publisher of the Petaluma Argus-Courier and Sonoma Index-Tribune.

This is the second in a two-part conversation that began with a town hall meeting Gorin hosted on April 5. The focus of this segment will be on finding a long-term solution - and funding - for fixing Highway 37. Attendees will be invited to pose questions to the panelists. The forum will be held at Sonoma Veterans Memorial Hall, 126 1st St. W, in Sonoma, beginning at 6:30 p.m. Join us.