Sand Hill-area construction starts for real next week Sand Hill-area construction starts for real next week (April 14, 2004)

By Marion Softky
Almanac Staff Writer

Buckle your seat belts and prepare to wait.

Next week, Stanford will seriously start two years of construction projects to rebuild and widen the notorious intersections where Sand Hill Road, Santa Cruz Avenue, Alpine Road, and Junipero Serra Boulevard meet.

Activity has been building up for weeks in the area, with utilities starting to replace water, sewer and electrical lines, as motorists on Alpine Road have found out. This week, workers are installing interim striping and signs to prepare for the first two projects.

"On Tuesday, April 20, we'll set up the traffic barriers," said construction manager Jim Inglis of the Stanford Management Co. "Please be patient."

The first two projects will affect Santa Cruz Avenue northwest of Sand Hill Road, and Alpine Road from Junipero Serra Boulevard to Rural Lane.

On Santa Cruz Avenue, workers will first demolish the sidewalk between Sand Hill Road and 2160 Santa Cruz Avenue, and prepare for building a retaining wall. To accommodate the work, southbound Santa Cruz Avenue will be constricted to one lane between Pacific Hill Condominiums and Sand Hill Road.

Alpine Road will be constricted to single lanes in both directions while workers build a new 700-foot, right-turn lane on the west side, from Junipero Serra Boulevard to Rural Lane.

Weekday construction hours will be 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Weekend hours will be authorized by the City of Menlo Park. Work that requires a lane closure will be limited to the hours of 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The three major projects for this year all involve Sand Hill Road. Starting in July and continuing to December, construction crews will:

** Widen Sand Hill Road to four lanes from Santa Cruz Avenue to the Palo Alto city limits at San Francisquito Creek.

** Widen the existing bridge over the creek to accommodate four traffic lanes and two bike lanes.

** Build a new frontage road along the existing Sand Hill Road, from Santa Cruz Avenue to Oak Avenue.

Next year, between April and December 2005, the narrow 450-foot "throat" between Sand Hill and Alpine roads will be closed to allow the road to be widened by moving back the high concrete wall along Stanford's Buck Estate. Other improvements to the intersections will be completed.

Information on the Sand Hill Road projects in Menlo Park is available by calling the project information line at 306-0350, or going to www.SandHillRoadProject.net. Comments may be submitted, and people may sign up for e-mail construction updates.

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