Nine months of detours ahead for some drivers Nine months of detours ahead for some drivers (March 02, 2005)

For drivers who use the part of Alpine Road east of Interstate 280, a coming nine-month detour may provoke a headache or two. Likewise for drivers accustomed to accessing Junipero Serra Boulevard and Alpine Road from Sand Hill Road.

From March 12 until sometime in November, there will be no access to the few hundred yards of Santa Cruz Avenue that connect the intersection of Alpine Road and Junipero Serra Boulevard to Sand Hill Road.

That stretch of Santa Cruz Avenue will be closed for nine months to reconstruct the approach to the intersection and to add bike paths to both sides of the road, spokesmen for Stanford Management Co. said.

Detours will be necessary for drivers and cyclists who normally use Alpine Road to go to Menlo Park and Palo Alto and drivers and cyclists headed in the opposite direction, from Sand Hill Road to either Alpine Road or Junipero Serra Boulevard.

The closure is the last stage of an 18-month reconstruction project begun in April 2004 to address traffic congestion in the area of Sand Hill and Alpine roads and their intersections with Santa Cruz Avenue and Junipero Serra Boulevard. The project is on schedule, company officials said.

Phase 1 of the project, which is supposed to end this month, included the widening of Sand Hill Road east of Santa Cruz Avenue, the construction of a wider bridge over San Francisquito Creek, the widening of Alpine Road as it approaches the intersection with Junipero Serra Boulevard, and a rebuilt pedestrian pathway connecting Santa Cruz Avenue to Alpine Road.

That pathway will also be closed between March and November, company officials said.
Detours

For eastbound drivers on Alpine Road headed for Sand Hill Road, the official detour will have drivers turn south on Junipero Serra, then east on Campus Drive to Stock Farm Road, which joins Sand Hill Road near the Oak Creek Apartments.

The route reverses for the other direction -- from Sand Hill Road, take Stock Farm Road south to Campus Drive, then west to Junipero Serra Boulevard, then north to Alpine Road.
Las Lomitas impacts

Six times a day, school buses from the Las Lomitas Elementary School District carry 18 students to the part of Alpine Road that lies east of I-280, said district superintendent Mary Ann Somerville.

Having the buses use the Junipero Serra Boulevard/Campus Drive/Stock Farm Road detour would add 20 minutes to each run, requiring a pick-up before 7 a.m. and a "very late delivery" in the afternoons, said Ms. Somerville.

At a recent workshop, the district's governing board considered having the buses take the detour, or chartering a van at a cost of about $70,000, or offering parents a mileage stipend for driving their kids to school.

The board agreed on the stipend option, at a cost to the district of $10,000 to $11,000, Ms. Somerville said.
INFORMATION

For more information on the Sand Hill Road Project -- including maps, traffic advisories and construction schedules -- call 306-0350 or go to SandHillRoadProject.net.

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