We have the City Council to than for approving these plans. I have almost been in one accident merging onto 101 North in that very short merge. Also, as has been pointed out many times, even when done this will be a major inconvenience for anyone going West on Willow. Those cars that want to go west will be sitting in the same long lines as the cars going toward the bridge until the last 60 or so feet, then they get their own turn lane, which will probably still have people trying to turn east from the wrong lane. If my experience with Northbound 101 before they tore up the interchange is any indicator this will probably add between 15 and 30 minutes to the evening commute for anyone heading to West Menlo and with the rushed drivers trying to cut in at the last minute I expect more cases of Road Rage. So much for a safer more efficient interchange. Did anyone with Common Sense even look at these plans?

Just another indication of how little the City Council cares about traffic and the impact it has on the residents of Menlo Park.

Quick update:

I was informed that Ray Mueller and Cat Carlton were opposed to the current interchange and voted against it. I guess that means we have Kirsten Keith, Peter Ohtaki and Richard Cline to thank for the mess we will have to live with for many years to come.

Agreeing with Brian that this new interchange has made getting back to Menlo Park so much more time consuming. Even at 3:45 in the afternoon, traffic heading toward the bridge is backed up onto 101 stretching back towards University. More often than not, I drive the extra few miles to Marsh Rd and double back because it takes less time than waiting in the line to exit Willow. Plus, I now run errands after work near my office or in RWC because the traffic madness makes heading to downtown MP too frustrating.

Just a reminder that some of those folks heading east on Willow are actually fellow Menlo Park trying to get to their homes.

I too have been terrified to get onto Northbound 101 from Willow Road interchange...always wondering when I'm going to get wacked! Yep, Brian is right....Kirsten Keith, Peter Ohtaki and Rich Cline voted for this desing, with the former city manager (Alex) pushing for this design! The back-up traffic from the south AND the north trying to get onto Willow Road. It is far worse than before! Terrible design.

Dawn, I feel for anybody who lives in Belle Haven and has to get hone during the commute. However this design should actually improve that part of the commute by having more lanes going east on to Willow. If that happens or not will remain to be seen. I wouldn't be surprised if this made getting off the freeway going either direction on Willow even worse.

We should look at this from a very simple perspective. What do you think would happen if you had a funnel with a 6 inch opening at the top that dropped to a half inch opening tube at the bottom and you decided to make the top 12 inches yet kept the bottom opening at 1/2 inch (like Willow Road)...Duh This was a stupid project from the get go!!! However what would we expect from our city leaders who do not understand traffic mitigation!

A resident has owned a home here in the Willows for over twenty years has a vested interest in making decisions that will benefit the community. A person that moved into the district a few months ago and is on a one year lease until the home owner returns has no interest other that getting elected. If not for this project, the Willows would not have "no right turn" and "no thru traffic" signs.

What a pile of baloney. You are arguing we should thank Keith for making such a terrible decision on the interchange that congestion and cut through traffic got so bad that no right turn sigs had to be implemented? Thats super twisted. It’s time for Keith to move on. She had eight years to make decisions to benefit District 2. Yet all he supporters do is attack Combs.

I am coming back to the area after 6+ months and it looks to me like there was Millions of tax dollars spent without addressing/improving the salient points:

The central problem were the NB 101 on/off ramps and the traffic flow on Willow Road.

Looks all my past Tax money was spent for a new fancy bridge and some Christmas lights.
.

There is absolutely no runway on to 101 North.

I just avoid this interchange completely, and go 280 or surface streets. It's worth the extra time, and it's only a matter of time before there is a big incident at this interchange.

Be safe, all.

Vested Interest,

Maybe I can clear up some of your misconceptions. You would think that a resident who's been here for a while would actually have a vested interest in cleaning up the traffic but history says otherwise. The candidate who says that they've been here for 20 plus years met with the residents of the Willows before the project began and promised that they would work on the traffic issues that we all saw coming. All that happened was that she ghosted us and never did anything. And in case you wanted to know this was a meeting was held at Cafe Zoe with the residents the willow regarding traffic and the problems that many of us expected would happen when the interchange construction began. Unfortunately reality was even worse than what we originally feared.

Had it not been for that candidate and others on City Council voting to approve the Willow/101 interchange as it is going to be, we would not need the no right turn signs.

Finally, as somebody very deeply involved in getting those no right turn signs put in place I can tell you that the current city council member for District 2 was not responsive to the needs of the residents when this was first brought up. In fact Keith didn't even vote for getting the no thru traffic signs. It actually took a group of us collecting hundreds of signatures going door-to-door and having petition drives then showing up as a large group at a city council and presenting our case before we got any action.

I hope that clears up your misconceptions about what really happened and then you'll realize that a candidate who has been in this district for so long doesn't really seem to care much about the traffic problems facing the Residence at this District.

It is sad when the only reason you can provide for voting for a candidate with 8 years experience/voting record is that they have lived here longer.

Last night I travelled Southbound 101 at 11 PM trying to exit onto Willow Road southbound. Encountered a bare, small, right-angled intersection illuminated only by my headlamps (so it appeared) to get to Willows.

I was sober.

Other may not be so fortunate.

I drove this today and the situation has improved, slightly. There is a very amateurish 'Short Merge' sign posted over a larger sign .. nothing else. Merge is now better but still takes close attention to the traffic condition on 101 to ensure they see you and prepare to let you in. Hopefully the final configuration will be safer.

Agree with Stu re 101 SB to Willow WB, somewhat of a blind spot situation, with three lanes crossing the 101 WB, the right lane enters 101 SB, other 2 proceed forward. Be very careful making a Right Hand Turn on Red onto Willow WB, the mandatory turn lane provides an illusion that it is safe to enter the roadway when its really not, as the other 2 lanes dominate the space post the exit.

Final issue I hope they fix will be the exit from 101 NB to Willow Rd. Hopefully 2 exit lanes (RH mandatory exit to Willow EB and LH lane to Willow WB with legal option to drive forward and not exit the fwy.) will be in the final arrangement. If so, these 2 lanes MUST be separated with Bots Dots (or larger obstacles, see the perfect ones at Jefferson Ave/ECR RWC outside the Habit Burger Restaurant) to prevent lane jumpers .. otherwise 101 NB Willow exit will NOT be an option to any Willow WB drivers from 3-7 any working day of the year!

But then again I assume CalTrans et al have thought of all of this .. one would hope.

Perhaps the strategy is, Hope for the Best, but Expect the Worst !

We are in the weeds right now on this project. It's been in the works for a very long time and is the result of a massive outreach and coordination effort across multiple jurisdictions. Menlo Park was far from the only player.

All five sitting council members had the opportunity to weigh in on the design and all five voted for it back in 2013. (If you've absolutely nothing else to do, you can watch the meeting from May 2013.) Of the options at hand, this one made sense, given what they knew at the time. It probably still makes sense, honestly. But we're only halfway there, and the halfway point is painful.

I think it's worth noting a few things:
1) There were big issues with the original design: it caused queuing on 101, the weaved on-/off-ramp was scary, and it was horribly unsafe for bikes/pedestrians–-of which we have many, due to the influx of EPA kids to M-A. This plan was vetted and recommended by staff, various commissions, EPA city council, etc.
2) Since the new design was approved and funded, all kinds of external variables have changed. This was predictable. It doesn't mean that it isn't still a better option than the original.
3) This interim phase of construction was always going to hurt. There is no universe in which a complete overhaul of a major freeway interchange was going to be frictionless.
4) This is the crappy part of being on council: you are confronted with decisions about projects that will be completed years into the future, at which point everything might have changed...you're working with incomplete information...and you know that whatever you decide (including the decision to do nothing) will come back to haunt you. And yet–-that's the job. It's not all ribbon cuttings and sister cities.

This reaction, in a nutshell, is probably why we've been hemming and hawing on the grade separation decision for so long. Can you blame council for being a little trigger-shy?

Kate,

You are right, every member of City Council voted for it. It is also worth noting that later, when it turned out CalTrans was not completely honest about the reasoning for the project, Originally they claimed that earthquake retrofitting was part of the project but that was actually done in the 90's, Council member Mueller tried to get the full council to revisit the design and the approval for it. This was before the project began, but he got no support from the other members.

I would have to say that to anyone who drove on 101 during the Rush Hour commute, the design for the new interchange just didn't make sense. We all experienced the queuing on 101, sometimes back to University Avenue. Having one exit for both East and West Willow just means that everyone going West will also be stuck in that mess and make the backup go that much further South on 101. The result of that is likely to be more people (I have a different word for them) driving as close as they can to the exit then cutting in at the last minute. This is dangerous, rude (Road rage incident waiting to happen) and results in blocking the freeway lane that is not exiting. What we have is a mess that we are going to be stuck with for 50 years or until it gets bad enough that Caltrans is forced to make changes that will cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

Yesterday I exited northbound 101 to westbound Willow Road and found myself in a confusing maze. The road markings and the traffic lights do not match up. I would assume this is a temporary measure but I would not be surprised if there is a tragic accident. I would suggest putting up some vertical lane pillars at the very least to ease over the current construction status.

As a resident of Belle Haven, I am pretty confident this new interchange should improve the safety of getting into the neighborhood - especially if you are coming from northbound US-101. The old ramp merge onto Willow Road eastbound, crossing over to Newbridge, was a complete nightmare; in some ways, even in the middle of construction, that aspect seems to be far improved. The back-up that would build up on US-101 Northbound offramp was also a big problem. There are some very short merges onto US-101 right now, but that should be cleared up after construction. This interchange update is a good thing.

The design of the old interchange wasn't great. The design of the new interchange wasn't great. When push comes to shove, road design is a compromise and most designs have an issues.

The fundamental problem is that y'all drive like complete jacka**es.

Put down the phone, pay attention, and make sure you're in the correct lane. If you're in the wrong lane, go with it and go up an exit / down an exit / around the block / etc, don't hold up traffic and cut in. Your 5 minutes isn't *that* important.