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The Caltrans project to rebuild the highway interchange at Willow Road and U.S. 101 has been completed. The project’s completion was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony held the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 24.
While the interchange has been open for a little while, according to Caltrans spokesperson Jeff Weiss, there were some final steps to verify that everything functioned correctly before the ribbon-cutting was held.
The project converted the original cloverleaf interchange, built in 1955, into a “partial cloverleaf” design. The new overcrossing also has two bike lanes, one separated with a concrete barrier and a separate bike lane alongside motor vehicles.
According to Caltrans, the project’s completion means that far fewer vehicles will have to drive across the overpass, which is expected to ease congestion and facilitate merging.
“…far fewer vehicles will have to drive across the overpass,” ???
So CalTrans rebuilt an overpass because they expected a lot less usage?
Caltrans rebuilt that overpass for the sole purpose of moving traffic east on Willow at the expense of anyone wanting to go West on Willow. Cars turing East are blocking the West bound turn lanes, they block the freeway exit lanes to get a few cars ahead and then block everyone when they cot over to the East bound turn lanes. Unfortunately CalTrans lies to the city council on why this rebuild was needed then the built something that cost a fortune and is worse than what was there before.
I commute home on southbound 101 every day, and yes, it takes much long to exit 101 and turn right (west) onto Willow than it did before. While this sucks, the new interchange is much safer overall in terms of merging onto the freeway and bike/pedestrian crossing.
I feel much safer getting on and off 101 at Willow Road with this new configuration. The old cloverleaf was very dangerous exiting from 101 NB to Willow WB, or entering from Willow EB to 101 NB. While I was disappointed that the new 101 NB entrance from Willow EB dumps you right onto a freeway lane instead of a new merge lane, at least there is a safe workaround: make a U-turn at Newbridge and enter 101 NB on a merge lane, and I am willing to spend a few extra minutes driving to Newbridge.
Brian writes, “CalTrans lies to the city council on why this rebuild was needed”
CalTrans is a public agency that serves residents. We hope Kate Bradshaw will post a update to this article identifying each lie by CalTrans employees.
say more:
since Brian is making the accusation, perhaps he should come up with information identifying the lies.
I used to bike commute into the Sun Microsystems Campus and let me tell you,
the 101 overpass section was a real clincher at times. Eastbound in the mornings wasn’t too bad but the afternoon ride home was not for beginners.
I’m glad they made it safer. They won’t know it, but someone’s life has already been saved. Nice 🙂
They need to physically separate the lanes! Barriers are needed to prevent people from turning from the wrong lanes and blocking cars that are not crossing the bridge. This was a problem before and is even worse now.