Westbound lanes still closed on Highway 37

The westbound lanes of State Highway 37 remained closed Thursday near Novato in northern Marin County with no timeline to reopen them, but eastbound lanes of the highway are open.

The closure - the second on the highway in two weeks - began Wednesday and is the result of another breach of the levee by Novato Creek on the south side of the road, which flooded sections of the westbound lanes, according to state Sen. Mike McGuire.

The levee, which falls in the right-of-way owned by Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit, was previously breached late on Feb. 14, forcing closure of the westbound lanes early the next morning. An estimated $1.8 million went into repairs to reopen the critical North Bay artery for the morning commute on Feb. 20.

McGuire said the three-day rainstorm that started Monday also washed out a portion of the temporary repairs beneath the railroad tracks, which are used exclusively by the freight hauler Northwestern Pacific Railroad.

SMART and NWP Co. are once again working together to stabilize the levee, which cost roughly $300,000 to fix earlier this month. It was unclear Thursday how much additional money will need to be spent to make new repairs.

A temporary dam installed on the east-west connector by Caltrans crews last week was also overtaken by the deluge of water late Wednesday, but remains in place.

“The challenge that we have is the challenge of the region - we received an enormous amount of rain in a short period of time,” said McGuire, D-Healdsburg. “Novato Creek overtopped its banks, which then created a domino effect.”

The other Caltrans repair work held up to the storm, a Caltrans spokesman said. Crews will now work to add temporary flood barriers along a half-mile to 1 mile stretch of the highway and repave low spots in the roadway once water levels recede. In the meantime, Caltrans is back out using pumps to drain standing water from the highway’s westbound lanes to get them open as soon as possible.

An initial CHP survey seemed to suggest the new flooding in the low-lying spot of the roadway, which is adjacent to the San Pablo Bay, is worse than the previous closure that began on Feb. 15.

“The flooding on the westbound side appears to be more substantial than last week,” CHP Officer Andrew Barclay said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @kfixler.