The grant money would help pay for the cost should the city move forward with plans for a roundabout at the Far Hills Avenue intersection of Oakwood Avenue and Thruston Boulevard, also known as Five Points.
No specific estimated costs have been cited by Oakwood officials or in city records, but three residents spoke against moving forward with the application. They said the move to seek funds was premature and all cited traffic access issues with the proposed roundabout design.
The current plan “deprives us … the full access to the intersection that we currently enjoy,” Oakwood Avenue resident Steve Stanley said.
Oakwood Mayor Bill Duncan said the city is applying for money now due to a late August deadline to be considered for future rounds of funding.
“We’re still very early in the evaluation process” before a decision is made whether or not to move forward with a roundabout option, Duncan said.
Officials said a key reason for the roundabout would be safety concerns.
“There is extensive support from traffic safety studies for building roundabouts, showing that they reduce crashes, particularly serious injury crashes, and reduce motorist delays,” the city stated in a white paper published Friday.
While acknowledging the initial higher cost, “lifecycle costs to maintain the roundabout would be lower than lifecycle costs to maintain a traffic signal,” the document stated.
The intersection is on a hill and carries heavy traffic on Ohio 48 between Dayton and multiple south suburbs, the nearest being Kettering. Thruston and Oakwood Avenue intersect with the state route diagonally at the same spot, giving the intersection six spokes.
While the proposed change is called a roundabout, the design released by the city is more peanut- or dumbbell-shaped than round.
Oakwood records cite seven other roundabouts — including four in Central Ohio — as having similar shapes.
The roundabout concept has been studied by Oakwood for months and in recent weeks was the focus of a series of public forums.
The intersection’s signals are about 28 years old and will reach their useful end in five to 10 years, according to the city.
About the Author
