Can Mathilda Monster at 101-237 be tamed? Maybe

Drivers have viciously cursed the Mathilda Monster since Willie Mays roamed centerfield at a spanking new Candlestick Park in the 1960s.

That’s nearly 70 years of griping about the interchange that sits in the heart of Silicon Valley, where highways 101 and 237 intersect with Mathilda  Avenue in Sunnyvale. Thousands of jobs, but way too many drivers trying to squeeze through a tangled maze of short ramps, impossible left turns, frequent stop signs and signals overwhelmed by can’t-move-an inch traffic.

Now welcomed fixes are coming with a $42 million project beginning this month . While it may not tame the monster, it has to help.

“It’s like pushing hot tangled goop through a strainer,” said former councilman Jack Witthaus.

This is the first major project to get off the ground since the state gas tax was increased 12 cents a gallon and Santa Clara County voters hiked the sales tax by a half-cent over the next 30 years. The two taxes will bring in $17 million each for this upgrade with Sunnyvale chipping in $8 million.

The Valley Transportation Authority is overseeing the work with Sunnyvale and Caltrans also involved.

What’s coming? A lot.

• Widen Mathilda Avenue to three lanes in each direction from Ross Drive to Almanor/Ahwanee avenues.
• Modify ramps; remove and add signalization intersections; and new left-turn lanes.
• Upgrade bicycle and pedestrian facilities, street lighting, ramp metering and light rail crossings.
• Modify the Mathilda signals at Ross Drive, 237 eastbound ramps and 237 westbound at Moffett Park Drive.
• Realign the 237 westbound off-ramp to continue across Mathilda onto Moffett Park by eliminating the segment on Moffett Park between Bordeaux Drive and Mathilda.
• Install a new signal at Bordeaux Drive/Innovation Way.
• Install warning devices, flashing lights, and gates for new pedestrian access across the light rail tracks at Moffett Park/Innovation Way, with new access to northbound 101 from southbound Mathilda.
• Realign and widen northbound 101 to Mathilda.
• The project will provide an alternate route to exit directly from 101 to northbound Mathilda through a new signalized intersection.

The next two years won’t be easy as work crews swarm the area. Commuters are encouraged to carpool or use transit. Companies are also encouraged to stagger work times or allow telecommuting. And drivers who wish to avoid the construction area along Mathilda are advised to use Fair Oaks Avenue and Ellis Street crossings on 101 to reach their destinations.

Sunnyvale public works director, Chip Taylor, wants drivers to park their cars at home. “Light rail is nearby,” he said.

Drivers are eager to end their sailor-style cursing.

Edwina Johnson of Sunnyvale said “a solution can’t be constructed soon enough” for the “terribly designed interchange.”

“It’s a dangerous area in so many ways,” she said. “People need to slow down coming off northbound 101 onto Mathilda, everyone needs to pay attention to the traffic lights and stop signs, and to the way they are switching lanes.”

And those like Johnson may soon “find the beauty in this VTA/Caltrans/Sunnyvale project partnership that will ultimately deliver relief, reliability and redemption,” said city spokesperson Jennifer Garnett.

So adios to the “Monster?” Maybe.

Look for Gary Richards at Facebook.com/mr.roadshow or contact him at mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com.

To learn more, call VTA’s Community Outreach Department at 408-321-7575, for the hearing-impaired 408-321-2330., go to www.vta.org/mathildaimprovements, or VTA at community.outreach@vta.org.