Highway 101/Peninsula Avenue project in San Mateo scrapped

“These intersections on Poplar and Humboldt have been so bad that friends of mine with young children who live at Woodlake would literally not allow their children to go to school unattended to cross that intersection. That’s how bad it is,” Councilmember Amourence Lee said.

For years, the city has looked into relocating the ramps to Peninsula Avenue because, east of Idaho Street, it has two lanes in each direction, no parking or driveways and has shoulders and bike lanes, all advantages over East Poplar Avenue. The total project cost estimate ranges from $169 million to $227 million, and while some funding could be secured from regional or state agencies, the majority would have to come from the city.

Moving forward would also require the city to acquire dozens of private properties along North Amphlett Boulevard via eminent domain, another financial burden for the city. Councilmember Rich Hedges said, at this point, many of the affected residents just want to know which direction the city is going so they can plan accordingly.

“I would be in favor of shutting this down,” Hedges said. “We need to relieve those people who have been worried about it for well over a decade.”

Gino Caccia, who owns two properties on North Amphlett Boulevard, said he has been involved with this effort for years, adding that he agrees with city staff’s recommendation to cancel the plans altogether.

“This has been hugely stressful to have this over our head for 15 or so years,” Caccia said during the council meeting public comment period Sept. 15. “Hopefully technology makes car driving safer, and we can do things to improve the corridor so people can walk and bike in those areas. But taking our buildings is not the right solution.”

In the meantime, plans to relieve congestion and improve safety near East Poplar Avenue are still in progress. The city has a North Central-specific plan to improve nondriving modes of transportation, though specific remedies to the off-ramp concerns are still being evaluated.

“This is somewhat of an unfortunate end for this project and the aims of it, but I also think it’s fortunate that we also have the North Central Complete Streets program already underway, and I look forward to leveraging that and taking the opportunity to build on that,” Councilmember Adam Loraine said.