Willow Road/U.S. 101 Interchange

The City of Menlo Park is a project sponsor of the Caltrans project to update the interchange of U.S. 101 at Willow Road. The current "full cloverleaf" style interchange will be replaced with a "partial cloverleaf" which will eliminate the short merge weaves both on Willow Road and on the freeway and will create a more efficient way for all modes of traffic, including bikes and pedestrians, to get across the freeway at Willow Road. The project will replace the existing interchange with a new, wider bridge; add sidewalks on both sides, bike lanes on both sides and protected bike paths on both sides; and add two signalized intersections. The final version of the new interchange layout is available for review.

Current status

This project was awarded to a contractor in February 2017 and construction began in May 2017 and is expected to continue for approximately 2 years.

New Traffic Signals and Ramp Locations

In November 2017, the project added two temporary traffic signals and changed the lane layout at each of the ramp locations for the current phase of construction. The traffic signals along Willow Road from Durham Street to Newbridge Street have been coordinated and are being monitored and adjusted as needed so that the traffic can flow through the interchange more smoothly.

Willows Neighborhood Traffic Changes

To help alleviate additional congestion experienced in the neighborhoods, the following temporary turn restrictions were implemented in Decemmber 2017:

• No right turns from Chester, Durham and O’Keefe to Willow Road, 3-7pm weekdays(Except SamTrans and school buses)
• No left turns from Woodland to Baywood, 3-7pm weekdays

These turn restrictions will be enforced for all vehicles, so both local and regional traffic will need to make adjustments to their travel routes during these weekday afternoon hours. Staff is performing on-going observations and monitoring as well as collecting observations from the community to determine the effectiveness of these changes.

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Current construction activities

For more detailed construction information, please refer to the weekly construction news updates

Dates	Times	Impacted area	Activity	Traffic impacts
March - April 2018	7am-6pm M-F	Median and both sides of freeway	Installation of new bridge structure columns and walls	Periodic freeway lanes closures may occur during non-peak hours
March - May 2018	7am-6pm M-F	Quadrant closest to East Palo Alto	Grading, earth moving and concrete work for drainage systems	Possible noise impacts
January 2- mid-March, 2018	8am-5pm M-F	Sound walls areas and outside areas of Willow bridge	Pile driving for foundations of new sound walls and demolition of existing Willow bridge	No traffic impacts, but noise and vibration impacts may be experienced by adjacent residential areas
December 18, 2017 through TBD	3-7 pm M-F	Chester, Durham & O'Keefe at Willow	No right turns	Right turns will be restricted every weekday from 3-7 pm for all vehicles
December 18, 2017 through TBD	3-7 pm M-F	Woodland to Baywood	No left turns	Left turns will be restricted every weekday from 3-7 for all vehicles
Starting November 6, 2017	24 hours per day	U.S. 101 Ramps and Willow Road intersections	Change in ramp layout and added temporary traffic signals	New traffic signals will be turned on; Both SB ramps will be on south side; Both NB will be on the north side of Willow Road
July 24, 2017 - Fall 2018	24 hours per day	Willow Road between Bay Road and Newbridge	Construction of Willow bridge, no bicycles or pedestrians allowed	Bicycle and Pedestrian shuttle provided and Ringwood pedestrian bridge available as detour. Shuttle map