State DOT reveals more details on roundabout plan

Work on new traffic pattern for Chapel Four Corners to begin next week

CUMBERLAND – The state Department of Transportation’s (DOT) new roundabouts are coming to ease traffic congestion on Diamond Hill Road and the Chapel Four Corner intersection and local residents were given an initial overview on how they will work during an informational meeting at Cumberland Library Monday evening. Mayor William Murray opened the session with DOT representatives by noting that no single solution may solve all the traffic issues at Chapel Four Corners and the nearby highway exchange for Diamond Hill Road and Route 295 but the roundabouts may be a start. “This is a situation that needs to be fixed,” Murray said. With work on the $7.5 million road construction project set to get underway next week, Murray said his

administration will be keeping close watch on how the work is conducted. “What I want to tell you people here, we are going to stay on it all the time,” Murray said. DOT project managers Rob Innocent and Steve Soderlund then proceeded to give the residents present an overview of how the new road layout related to the roundabouts and the updated intersection at Chapel Four Corners – Diamond Hill Road, Angell Road and Bear Hill Road – will function while allowing typically backed up traffic in the area to move through more quickly. The proposed layout, starting with widened traffic lanes running into a roundabout north of Diamond Hill’s highway bridge over Route 295, and continuing to a second roundabout on the other side of the highway bridge to the south, will conclude with a new traffic pattern allowing some vehicles to move through the Chapel Four Corners exchange through right turning lanes, and a specially-timed traffic light pattern. The concept behind the changes overall is designed to keep traffic moving through the area with a minimum of back up or stopping, according to Innocent. “It allows traffic to keep going without really slowing down,” Innocent explained. Traffic will come into the roundabouts and follow lanes to either go directly onto the related highway ramps or follow a partial curve through the exchange to continue on its way. Some vehicles will circuit around the roundabout where needed to access the ramps for the opposite side of the highway. Vehicles heading south to Chapel Four Corners will still find traffic signals at that exchange but a lengthened turning lane should help alleviate some of the stacking of vehicles that currently can extend out onto the turning lane of Route 295. “We are not going to fix every single problem because otherwise it becomes an overpass situation,” Innocent said. Residents listening to the presentation offered both comments supporting the changes as well as some views that they may not be enough to address what are clearly backed up traffic conditions in the area now. One resident of the neighborhood told of how she sometimes faces a line of 40 cars to get out of Broadview Avenue in the morning. “These roundabouts are not large enough for the traffic on Diamond Hill Road,” she said. “You need larger roundabouts than you have now,” she added. Soderlund, however, explained that the DOT’s design phase, part of the overall $11 million cost of the project’s planning, design and construction, looked at the capacity of the roundabouts to handle the traffic in the area, including the large tractor trailer trucks using Diamond Hill and the industrial and commerce businesses in the adjoining industrial park off Industrial Road. The roundabouts have a special paved area within their traffic circle that provides trucks with usable space for turning through their traffic patterns, he explained. The Cardi Corporation has been selected as the successful bidder on the project and will be constructing the intersection and roundabout road changes starting on July 18 and continuing through December of 2020, Innocent and Soderlund told the gathering. The initial work residents will see occurring at the site will be the movement of all utilities away from the new roadway layout and also the installation of some temporary road access fill to allow the work to take place, according to Soderlund. The work will be limited to specific time periods of the day and involve lane closings during the least traveled times of the day, the DOT representatives noted. There will be no shutdowns of the roadway completely and only restrictions to one lane going and one lane coming through the area at certain lower travel times of the day, they noted. While answering resident questions on how the signal lights will work in the area when the project is completed, Innocent said that no additional lights will be installed and that the lights that remain will be operated in a pattern allowing frequent travel through the intersection at Chapel Four Corners. “If you are stopping vehicles, you are creating traffic,” he explained. With the new roundabouts allowing a continuous flow of vehicles off and on to the nearby highway, the current problems in the area should be lessened, he noted. “With the roundabouts you have the potential to avoid traffic,” he said. David Walsh, assistant director of administrative services for the DOT, told the residents that the DOT also held an informational meeting for about 40 businesses owners in the area to hear their concerns on the changes and many were similar in nature. A key concern for the businesses was that the Diamond Hill Road exchange not be shutdown or detoured while the construction project was underway, he noted. He also explained how similar projects conducted by the DOT have been helped by efforts to educate people on how to properly travel through the roundabouts and take advantage of expanded travel routing. Murray noted that the local residents may in fact benefit from the roundabout installations the DOT has completed in other communities like Warwick. “We are going to be lucky because they have experienced some problems and they are being corrected now with proper signage and education,” Murray said. Town Councilman Robert Shaw, one of several local councilors and officials also in attendance, said the town might want to post regular updates on the project and its milestones on the town’s website to keep residents up-to-date on all of it ongoing changes. He also voiced support of the idea of a roundabout as a way to ease traffic congestion while explaining he travels through the series of roundabouts installed in the Apponaug section of Warwick on a regular basis. “There is a learning curve but they are awesome,” Shaw said. State Representative James McLaughlin also pointed to the planned work on Diamond Hill Road as part of a major update of infrastructure in the area that the town will be getting done with the help of state and federal funding. That work will update utility services and drainage through the area and also improve the roadways, he noted. “As pertaining to these roundabouts, it is something new and I believe education will help,” he said.