Hillside Boulevard Improvements

The Hillside Boulevard Improvement Project focused on the rehabilitation of approximately one half of a mile of a degraded roadway while also meeting the Town’s goals for “Complete Streets” and “Green Street” programs. The Town was poised to take advantage of several opportunities along this portion of Right of Way with improvements designed to: reduce vehicular speed; promote non-vehicular modes of travel while improving the quality of the storm water runoff and groundwater recharge. Improvements were necessary to address the deteriorated condition of the roadway, excessive speeding and a lack of bicycle and pedestrian safety. Within the last four years, there have been 36 traffic accidents on Hillside Blvd, which resulted in 11 injury accidents, four fatalities, of which one was a pedestrian fatality. To reach these project goals a “Road Diet” was implemented reducing the travel lanes from two to one lane in each direction, which allowed for sufficient right-of-way for the installation of new pedestrian sidewalks, high visibility crosswalks, vehicle feedback signage and new LED street lighting. The reduction in lanes also allowed for the installation of Type II bike lanes on both sides and sustainable landscape features that bring asthetic beauty to the area while also curtailing vehicular speeding. Prior to completion of this project, this portion of Hillside Boulevard did not have bicycle lanes. Hillside Boulevard is designated in the San Mateo County (SMCO) Comprehensive Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan as a Class II Bicycle Route connecting to an existing Class III Bicycle Route. Bicycle traffic utilizes Hillside for connection to El Camino Real, which provides access to bus stops, local shopping, Colma and South San Francisco BART Stations as well as commuting in and out of the immediate area. It was essential to the Town’s to the Town’s Climate Action Plan that the project incorporate sustainable features into the project. The addition of the Rain Gardens has helped contribute to cleaner water entering the waterways and underlying groundwater table, landscaping within the gardens meets or exceeds the water conservation mandates that are set in the Town’s model landscape Ordinance. With the retrofitting and installation of LED electrical features throughout the project, these improvements will assist in decreasing the Town’s carbon footprint and bring a reduction in their overall energy costs. Bringing elements of beauty into the area was also of high importance. Each garden consists of a decorative trees and drought resistant shrubbery and exotic grasses thus providing sustainable landscaping along the roadway. The rain gardens also function as a landscape barrier between the parking, driving and bike lanes. In addition to the aesthetics of the planting, it complies with the Town’s “Green Streets” objectives, assisting in reducing the carbon footprint and improving storm water quality.