Name: State bill to toll Highway 37 to prepare for sea level rise
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State bill to toll Highway 37 to prepare for sea level rise

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Show Caption of By | | Marin Independent JournalHighway 37 may become a toll road under a new state bill introduced on Friday.Toll revenues would be used to fund major rebuild and flood protections of the busy East Bay-North Bay connector in preparation for sea level rise and flooding impacts.Standing on a hillside at Sonoma Raceway overlooking the highway, bill author Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, said the urgency, high cost and looming consequences require “bold action” to address current and future flooding.“If we fail to act now, sea level rise will be devastating for tens of thousands of commuters and our regional economy,” Dodd said on Friday.The bill would implement the first major climate change adaptation project in the entire Bay Area road system, Dodd said. Additionally, the senator said the tolls would provide funding to bolster the surrounding wildlife habitat and address congestion issues that would only grow worse over time.Highway 37 has already been impacted by flooding caused by heavy storms and levee breeches in recent years, including closures in early 2019. Sea level projections show flooding would exacerbate over time with major sections of the 21-mile highway projected to be under water by the end of the century, Dodd said.A University of California at Davis study from 2016 and MTC report from 2018 states sea level rise models show San Francisco Bay sea levels are expected to rise between 26 and 46 inches by 2100. A 1-foot increase would cause frequent flooding along the section near Novato Creek and all segments of the highway would face permanent inundation with 3 feet of sea level rise, according to the reports.Traffic congestion is also a common issue, especially on the stretch of highway east of Sonoma Raceway where it bottlenecks to two lanes. About 40,000 vehicles use the highway daily, and that number is expected to increase to 58,000 in the next 20 years, Dodd said.Much of the details of the bill and the tolls will need to be hammered out in the coming months, Dodd said. The toll price could be similar to tolls on Bay Area bridges at a range of $5 to $6, which could raise a conservative estimate of $650 million over 20 years, Dodd said. Given that project estimates could range in the $3 billion to $4 billion range, Dodd said the authority would work to leverage its toll revenue to obtain state and federal funds.“So it’s not all on our workers, it’s not all on our taxpayers,” Dodd said.Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-Greenbrae, has been working on the Highway 37 flooding issues for several years. He said it’s unfortunate that no language for the bill has been released to the public with the announcement. The bill shows that Highway 37 has still not risen to the level of priority for state transportation funding agencies.“It looks as though Caltrans and the MTC wants to shift the burden on to hardworking commuters,” Levine said.Levine said he appreciates the California Transportation Commission approving $ on the section of highway near Novato, the work needs to begin to gain public confidence.“We can’t just patch it up each year,” Levine said. “We need to have a short-term fix that is lasting and we need to see an expansion of the roadway in our lifetimes or a replacement of the roadway in our lifetimes,” Levine said.&nbsp;An MTC spokesman reached Friday declined comment. Caltrans could not immediately be reached for comment.Whether the toll is collected in one or both directions is still to be decided, but Dodd said toll prices would be halved if collected bidirectionally.Unlike the Bay Area bridges under Regional Measure 3, the Highway 37 tolls would only need to be approved by the Legislature and not the voters, Dodd said.Dodd said he wants to put the work on a “fast track.” To begin paying for the projects, the toll authority would take out bonds that would be repaid using the toll revenue. Projects that could be funded include elevating the highway and improving the Sonoma Creek bridge and the approach to the bridge between Highway 121 and Mare Island.While the bill as of now does not specify whether a new toll authority would be created or be integrated into an existing agency, Dodd said he was not in favor of adding another layer of bureaucracy to an already crowded field in the Bay Area.Potential candidates that could run the toll program that Dodd identified were the Bay Area Toll Authority, which manages and distributes toll revenue collected from the seven state-owned bridges in the region, or the Bay Area Infrastructure Financing Authority, which is a joint powers authority between the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Bay Area Toll Authority that oversees construction and management of express lanes.Levine said he is not a fan of the Bay Area Toll Authority given the Bay Bridge eastern span replacement took 25 years and was $5 million budget. The bill should include independent oversight as well as ample opportunity for community engagement to ensure both commuter and sea level rise issues are addressed.“What we need to do is make sure local input is factored into the governance of Highway 37,” Levine said.Tolling Highway 37 is not a new idea, but is one that representatives of the multi-county Highway 37 Policy Committee have identified as a potential funding source. The committee is made up of transportation representatives from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the four counties that border the Highway: Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano.“This legislation is a good first step,” said Marin County Supervisor and committee member Damon Connolly, who also serves on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Bay Area Toll Authority. “We want to ensure that it benefits the whole corridor in the long run in what will not only be a major transportation project, with multi-modal benefits, but an opportunity to improve the surrounding environment, habitat and the resiliency of all our communities around San Francisco Bay.In addition to the highways, the surrounding wetlands that provide both ecological and flood control benefits to the region are under threat from sea level rise, said Sonoma Land Trust Executive Director Eamon O’Byrne. If wetland habitat is not restored in the coming decade, “rising seas will drown the unrestored landscape and create an uncertain future for both the habitat and the highway.”Cynthia Murray, executive director of the Petaluma-based business policy advocacy organization North Bay Leadership Council, said the highway is a crucial commute route for North Bay employees and an important transportation route for goods and materials.“Without Highway 37, of which thousands and thousands of our employees have to traverse every day, we are going to have some economic issues,” Murray said.We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. 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Show Caption of By | | Marin Independent JournalHighway 37 may become a toll road under a new state bill introduced on Friday.Toll revenues would be used to fund major rebuild and flood protections of the busy East Bay-North Bay connector in preparation for sea level rise and flooding impacts.Standing on a hillside at Sonoma Raceway overlooking the highway, bill author Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, said the urgency, high cost and looming consequences require “bold action” to address current and future flooding.“If we fail to act now, sea level rise will be devastating for tens of thousands of...

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State bill to toll Highway 37 to prepare for sea level rise

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