Plans for an overhaul of Highway 37 between Sears Point and Mare Island to ease congestion and gird the road against the rising waters of San Pablo Bay will be aired at Jan. 14 meeting hosted by Caltrans.

The hybrid meeting was scheduled to allow for discussion of a newly released draft supplemental environment impact report, now open for public review and comment. It incorporates changes to near-term road improvements, as well as the addition of a major marshland rehabilitation effort.

But there should be room for discussion beyond that, as well.

“The meeting on the 14th is going to mostly focus on the content of the draft supplemental EIR,” said Skylar Nguyen, senior environmental scientist with Caltrans. “That’s the focus, and that’s what we are presenting on, but we would be trying to answer as many questions as we can.”

The newly released environmental document relays in detail plans to restore and reinvigorate about 1,200 acres in and around what’s called the Strip Marsh East, a degraded area of tidal salt marsh west of Mare Island on the north shore of San Pablo Bay. The marsh provides habitat to multiple protected species and offers the chance for a nature-based buffer against sea level rise and flooding along about 3.5 miles of highway.

The work, in part, includes cutting channels into the marsh to help restore tidal flow, allow healthy plant life to become reestablished and flush out excess saline in the area.

The document also considers plans for about seven CHP and maintenance pullouts along the highway, signs, light boards, relocation of a planned toll gantry and other issues along the 10-mile Sears Point to Vallejo stretch.

It comes amid continued negotiations between transportation and resource interests over how best to proceed toward short- and long-range goals for the troubled highway in the face of limited funding, enormous costs and the urgent need for traffic relief.

About 40,000 vehicle trips are made each day along the entire 21-mile route between Highway 101 in Novato and Interstate 80 in Solano County.

Commuters may spend more than two hours a day on the highway, most of them driving from homes in Solano County on the east to jobs in Marin and Sonoma counties and then back.

About 85% of Highway 37 travelers have household incomes below the area median income, according to the California Transportation Commission. People of color make 28% of the trips.

So the issue is one of equity, as well as infrastructure, and elected officials and others are eager to do something to help.

The near-term project, expected to be in construction beginning in 2026, calls for adding high-volume occupancy lanes in each direction of the two-lane road between Sears Point and Mare Island and reconfiguring the Highway 37/121 interchange to alleviate a major choke point.

It calls for widening the Tolay Creek Bridge, as well.

But sea level rise is knocking at the door, and while ultimate plans call for an extended causeway elevating much of the eastern section of highway above expected water levels, the cost to do so is so prohibitively expensive, enough that it’s likely to be phased in over decades.

Some fear that will be too late ― that the short shelf-life of interim improvements means millions of dollars in new infrastructure could soon be under water. There are also concerns that securing funds for the bigger will prove harder once the short-term job is through ― that government offices won’t welcome double-dipping.

There is added uncertainty over the incoming presidential administration and Republican control of Congress, and what that will mean for infrastructure and resiliency funding.

Others have clamored for more balance in the decision making to ensure wider restoration goals in the baylands are met while they can still take hold and help absorb rising waters. These “opportunity costs” should be taken into account when considering the size of the near-term project, they say.

The result was the creation last winter of the Baylands Restoration and Transportation Expanded Partnership, which includes officials the California Natural Resources secretary, the head of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, officers from the state Water Board and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

Dina El-Tawansy, District 4 director for Caltrans, told a meeting of the four-county State Route 37 Policy Committee last month that members of the partnership are honing in on a couple of changes to the original short-term plan to better reflect environmental concerns and to signal Caltrans’ dedication to the long-term causeway plan.

The group has persuaded Caltrans not only to widen Tolay Creek Bridge but to extend it from its current 60 feet to 375 feet long, and sooner rather than later, along with creation of a much larger creek inlet to improve hydrologic connectivity between the Tolay Creek watershed and San Pablo Bay, allowing for restoration of tidelands and hundreds of acres of wetlands upstream.

The group also is near agreement on plans to begin environmental study next year for an elevated Highway 37/121 interchange “because we need to demonstrate to everyone that there’s a commitment to the long-term project,” said Larry Goldzband, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.

“This is a great way to do that.” he said. “Let’s do it. Let’s not wait.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @MaryCallahanB.