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The Springfield News-Sun provides in-depth coverage of road projects in Clark County, including recent stories on the Interstate 70 widening project and the roundabout on Ohio 235 and 40.
Transportation officials plan to build a $679,000 roundabout at one of Springfield’s busiest intersections, but one city commissioner wants Springfield officials to further discuss the project.
Earlier this year, the Clark County-Springfield Transportation Coordinating Committee applied for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Funds to construct a roundabout at the intersection of North Bechtle Avenue and the St. Paris Connector. The roundabout would reduce congestion, delays and the risk of crashes, according to officials.
The project has been approved by Ohio Department of Transportation officials, City Engineer Leo Shanayda said, and a partnership agreement will be presented to city commissioners once its completed early next year.
The intersection currently has a traffic signal and people can’t get out of the shopping centers where signals aren’t present, such as Walmart, City Commissioner Kevin O’Neill said during recent city budget meetings.
“A roundabout is not going to help slow that down,” he said.
O’Neill wants to discuss the issue further at a future work session. He wants more information before committing to the project.
“We need to talk about it because there are people who don’t like those,” O’Neill said.
The project would be the first true roundabout in Springfield. Calming islands are in some neighborhoods, such as the Sean’s Woods subdivision, to reduce speed in those areas, Shanayda said. A high-speed traffic circle just opened in Clark County at the intersection of Ohio 235 and 41.
Roundabouts work, Springfield City Commissioner Dan Martin said, and are located in many other cities.
“They’re using them all over Columbus,” Martin said.
The project will be paid for 100 percent with federal funds. No local matching money will be needed from the city, according to officials.
“I don’t want do it just because it’s free,” O’Neill said. “I want to do it because it’s right.”
Design work is expected to begin next year, Shanayda said, and construction could begin as early as July 2017.
The city and the TCC first applied for funding for the roundabout in 2011 from the Ohio Department of Transportation, but it was rejected due to a lack of crashes at the intersection.
A stop sign was initially placed at the intersection until a temporary traffic signal was installed in 2011 to reduce congestion.
The three-way intersection has a 35-mile per hour speed limit. Seven crashes have occurred there in three years and the average amount of traffic has increased from 13,100 vehicles daily in 2010 to 14,500 in 2011, the most recent year data is available.
The Clark County-Springfield Transportation Coordinating Committee held public meetings in August to discuss its Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality projects for the upcoming year. The committee received one written comment, which didn’t address the Bechtle project in particular, but was favorable toward roundabouts in general, TCC Director Scott Schmid said.
“It’s going to ease congestion there, for sure,” Schmid said.
TCC will take a closer look at the traffic in an analysis in the next few months as part of the congestion grant requirements, Schmid said. It will likely hire traffic engineers in the coming months to address concerns about the traffic patterns. That type of study typically costs about $10,000, Schmid said.
About 80 percent of traffic coming down the St. Paris Connector turns left and 80 percent of traffic along Bechtle turns right onto the connector, Schmid said.
“It’s a pretty established pattern,” he said.
The intersection has improved since the temporary stop light was installed a few years ago, Springfield resident Alice Goodfellow said while shopping on Bechtle Avenue.
“A lot of times people would be taking chances trying to get out there quickly,” she said. “I never saw an accident, but it was an accident waiting to happen.”
Some roundabouts are confusing, Goodfellow said, including the one in downtown Urbana, but she doesn’t foresee having an issue on Bechtle Avenue and St. Paris Connector.
“It just depends on how it’s done,” Goodfellow said.
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