With more than 12,000 vehicles a day using Birch Street, the morning and evening rush hours can be challenging for pedestrians who want to cross, and traffic trying to make left turns. County engineers say part of the answer for the next 20 years will be two traffic roundabouts: one at Tomahawk and the other at Shadow Lake Drive.
“The roundabouts are really good in controlling speed because you have to really slow down to get into there are some curves in there,” said Project Manager Elizabeth Markose.
She says the way it is now, traffic stacks up behind cars waiting to turn left into Rice Lake Elementary school. She says that makes for a dangerous situation and causes some accidents in the corridor. She says some cars even drive around on the shoulder to by-pass the line of waiting vehicles.
“It’s like side swipes and rear ends. It’s from all the turning you do from the city streets, from the left turns,” Markose says. “And people trying to cross to the shoulder because you have wide shoulders there. That’s not a safe situation at all.”
Instead of turning left, a driver would go through the traffic circle, effectively making a u-turn and head the other direction to make a right turn into the school.
“During school start and end timings, there are cars and busses and kids crossing to the school. That causes a major traffic issue with the 50 mile per hour road. The major issue that we want to tackle here is slow down the traffic and have a smooth traffic flow.”
Engineers says roundabouts generally reduce crashes by 39 percent and keep traffic moving. They also suggest it’s actually quicker for cars to go through the roundabout than waiting in heavy traffic to make a left turn. Engineers know not all drivers are on board, and construction is never fun, but they’re asking for patience.
“During construction it’s going to be a little chaotic but when it’s done, people are going to love it,” says Markose.
Early in the planning process, stop lights were considered for the road. But engineers say they would require a larger footprint with more turn lanes than the roundabout plan.
Work is set to begin in April. Lane closures and detours would wait until school ends for the summer. The project is expected to be completed in early fall.
