What to know about Highway 37 closures planned this weekend in North Bay
VALLEJO, Calif. (KGO) -- A planned lane closure on State Route 37 was postponed Wednesday because of rainy weather, but a major emergency construction project that will fully close an 11-mile stretch of the highway remains scheduled to begin Friday night, according to Caltrans.
The project will shut down Highway 37 in both directions between Mare Island and Sears Point for 55 hours, beginning at 10 p.m. Friday and ending at 5 a.m. Monday. Drivers will be required to use a roughly 40-mile detour.
Caltrans had planned to close westbound Highway 37 on Wednesday night to complete preparatory work ahead of the full closure. The agency postponed that work because of the approaching storm.
"The weather isn't supposed to be really bad as far as motorists, but we won't be able to do the grinding work that we had planned to do," Caltrans spokesperson Bart Ney said.
"So we are postponing tonight/Wednesday night's closure until Thursday night," Ney said.
The upcoming closure is part of what Caltrans described as an emergency maintenance repair project affecting an 11-mile section of Highway 37 from Walnut Avenue at Mare Island to Sears Point.
"This is more of an emergency maintenance repair," Ney said.
Motorists who regularly use the route said they are concerned about the impact of the closure.
"It's just going to be a mess," Destiny Simon said.
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"Everything is effected if Highway 37 is closed. Because people are going to try and go this way, that way," she said.
Gerald Simon, a motorist from San Francisco, said the lengthy detour would be difficult for commuters.
"Man that sounds terrible. We work too hard. That's too long of a commute honestly," he said.
Caltrans officials said the repairs are necessary because high water damaged portions of the roadway.
"We're doing this work now as refurbishment to State Route 37," Ney said.
"This is not part of part of Caltrans and other agencies efforts to make the route more resilient."
Ney said the agency plans to raise part of the roadway during the project.
"So what we're doing, we are going to be raising the road a couple of feet at this location," he said.
"Unfortunately, over the summer, high water levels remained on Highway 37 and damaged the roadway on the low point, kind of by the eastern side by Vallejo."
Construction equipment was already visible along the corridor Wednesday as crews prepared for the closure.
Caltrans warned motorists to expect significant traffic disruptions once the project begins.
"We do expect traffic to be challenging this weekend with these roadways out of service," Ney said.
According to Caltrans, about 40,000 people use Highway 37 each day.
While rain delayed Wednesday's preparatory work, Caltrans said it expects to complete that work during a westbound closure Thursday night. The full closure remains scheduled to begin Friday night as crews work to repair the storm-damaged roadway before additional winter weather arrives.
