Editing Sand Hill Road (section)

==History==
[[File:Willow Expressway- Looking towards Bay from Sand Hill Rd (1971).jpg|thumb|Photograph of Sand Hill Road in December 1969, in the non-approved "Willow Expressway" proposal, which would have extended Sand Hill to connect Interstate 280 to the [[Dumbarton Bridge (California)|Dumbarton Bridge]]]]
For many years, Sand Hill Road's northern end terminated in the middle of [[Stanford Shopping Center]]'s [[parking lot]], and the only four-lane segment was the section from [[Interstate 280 (California)|Interstate 280]] to Santa Cruz Avenue (the section where all the venture capitalists are housed). This situation resulted in two severe bottlenecks which made it difficult to travel to and from [[Stanford Shopping Center]], [[Stanford University]], and Menlo Park. {{citation needed|date=July 2011}}

Extension and widening of the road were fiercely opposed by environmentalists, who were concerned about the road's proximity to San Francisquito Creek, and by residents of Menlo Park, who feared that completion of the road would increase traffic congestion in their area due to the mid-Peninsula region's lack of a direct north–south arterial. After three decades of lobbying, negotiation, and litigation, the road was finally completed to [[El Camino Real (California)|El Camino Real]] in 2001. Only the existing portion from just ''north'' of Alameda de las Pulgas to just ''south'' of Stanford Shopping Center was widened to four lanes; the new extension past the shopping center was built only as two lanes.  {{citation needed|date=July 2011}}

The bottleneck near Santa Cruz Avenue was widened in 2006 and features a {{convert|16|ft|m|adj=on}} high faux rock wall at the junction of Sand Hill Road and Santa Cruz Avenue. The project was delayed because the stretch of land at issue runs through Menlo Park, not Palo Alto; the city reversed its opposition to widening only after seeing the results of the widening of the northern Palo Alto segment.<ref>Neidorf, Shawn. "Menlo Park OKs Widening Sand Hill Road." ''[[San Jose Mercury News]]'', November 13, 2002, sec. B, p. 1.</ref>