By Brian Behrman
Sun intern
A troublesome intersection in Milford will soon be remedied with a new layout.
Council authorized City Manager Pam Holbrook to contract with Adleta Construction to build a mini-roundabout during the Feb. 2 council meeting which was unanimously approved. The roundabout will be at the intersection of Chamber Drive and Beechwood Road, which is near River’s Edge at Milford.
Amy Brewer, vice-mayor and chair of the public services committee, told fellow council members that Ron Roberts, of Roberts Engineering, Inc., said that the roundabout will fix traffic flow issues in the intersection.
The intersection becomes congested during peak driving hours because there is only one stop sign on Beechwood Road. The majority of cars traveling east on Chamber Drive turn right onto Beechwood, and most cars that travel north on Beechwood turn left onto Chamber.
Since Beechwood has the only stop sign, drivers waiting to turn left don’t know if the oncoming stream of cars traveling eastbound down Chamber will turn or continue straight.
The hesitation from drivers stopped at Beechwood causes a traffic backup, and the pulsing flow of vehicles from the nearby traffic lights worsen the streaming of cars, adding to the wait.
A mini-roundabout is “a type of intersection that can be used at physically-constrained locations in place of stop-controlled or signalized intersections to help improve safety problems and reduce excessive delays at minor approaches,” according to the U.S. Department of Transportation website.
The new roundabout will fit the existing right-of-way and will eliminate stop signs at the intersection.
The mini-roundabout will not require any additional pavement or pavement widening, just pavement modification, and the curb and the street widths will remain the same, making this the most economical option, Roberts said.
The roundabout will feature a seven inch concrete dome known as a ‘mountable median’ that allows for the back wheels of large trucks and emergency vehicles to ride over, Roberts said.
“(Traffic) has to move slowly, but it will move a little bit easier,” Roberts said.
Roberts Engineering Inc. completed a survey last spring on the Chamber Drive and Beechwood Road intersection.
“The purpose of the study was to determine what solutions might be the most effective to manage the traffic flow at the intersection,” Interim City Manager Pam Holbrook said in an email.
Adleta Construction made the lowest bid on the contract to build the mini-roundabout at the cost of $57,357.40 Work will begin March 1 and will finish by April.
“We will have a traffic plan in place, after we have met with the contractor. We will make that available to the public,” said Holbrook in an email.
The intersection where the roundabout will go was created with the Beechwood Road connection to Chamber Drive at the intersection of Round Bottom and Beechwood Roads. The connection was completed on June 15, 2005.