Road rebuilding planned on Atherton's Selby Lane Road rebuilding planned on Atherton's Selby Lane (March 02, 2005)

By Andrea Gemmet

Almanac Staff Writer

Children heading to Selby Lane School and other pedestrians can expect a more pleasant route this fall thanks to a road reconstruction project planned for Selby Lane in Atherton.

The total reconstruction of Selby Lane from El Camino Real to the Atherton border (at the corner of Selby Lane and Selby Lane where it turns into West Selby Lane) is slated to start this summer and will close the road to through-traffic.

The project will include 3-foot-wide shoulders along the road and drainage swales that should prevent the need for pedestrians to dodge mud puddles while walking along the shoulder.

A small section of Selby Lane, between El Camino Real and Oakwood Boulevard, will include bicycle lanes, he said.

"It will look very similar to Stockbridge (Avenue) on the Atherton side," Mr. Jones said.

Plans for the $1.4 million project were approved by the Atherton City Council at its February 16 meeting.

The reconstruction was originally proposed for last summer, but town officials postponed the project to wait for the completion of a San Mateo County sewer system project, said Atherton public works director Duncan Jones.

"We weren't about to go in there and put in a new road and then have them dig it up," Mr. Jones said.

Selby Lane was originally slated for a less extensive overhaul, that would dig out failed sections of the roadbed and top the entire length with a new asphalt overlay, but the road was so damaged that it was more efficient and more economical to reconstruct the entire road, said Mr. Jones.

"Basically, it's shot," he said. "We went out with cans of paint to mark the areas that needed dig-outs and we ran out of paint."

The project is set to go out to bid in May, allowing the City Council to award the job after the results are in from the special June 7 election, when a renewal of the town's parcel tax goes before voters. If the parcel tax fails, town officials will likely have to use money earmarked for capital improvement projects to fund other town services, such as the police department.

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