The Butler County Engineer’s Office held a public feedback session Sept. 9 to present three concepts for roundabouts. One is a traditional circular roundabout, but two, because of the number of streets involved, are peanut-shaped.
“That’s obviously not an official engineering term, but it’s kind of a nickname, because it’s basically an oblong kind of a roundabout,” said engineer’s spokesman Chris Petrocy of the peanut-shaped options.
“The reason that’s being presented as an alternative is because this is an intersection where you have five roads coming in,” he said.
With five streets, “it’s a lot more confusing,” Petrocy said, so engineers considered other ways to facilitate smoother traffic flow.
Safety is among reasons for the project, which will be funded through county, city and federal funds. The rough estimate for construction costs is $2.4 million, not including property purchases and relocation of utilities.
From 2015 through 2017, there were 40 crashes in all parts of the intersection, none of them fatal. According to the engineer’s office: 27 percent involved vehicles hitting others from behind; 12 percent involved vehicles turning left; 12 percent involved backing vehicles; and 12 percent involved right turns; with 10 percent involving stationary objects; 8 percent involving angle crashes; another 8 percent involving parked vehicles; 8 percent involving sideswipes; and 3 percent of them head-on collisions.
Hancock Avenue and Grand Boulevard are Hamilton streets, while Tuley Road, Tylersville and Hamilton-Mason are in Fairfield Twp., with Tylersville and Hamilton-Mason being county highways.
Construction on the project is expected to start and end in 2021.
According to the engineer’s office, whichever roundabout is chosen will allow substantially better traffic flow, with delay times reduced “especially during morning and evening rush hours.”
People at the feedback session didn’t express dissatisfaction with the fact that several properties would probably have to be purchased to accommodate the road improvements, Petrocy said.
“In all honesty, a lot of the feedback we got from the locals was they were very open to it (selling),” he said.
Consultants who were at the meeting continue to evaluate feedback. One of the three options is expected to be chosen by early 2019, if not this year.
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