County to pay $245K for roundabout land
Project will ease traffic at intersection of Alex Bell, Mad River roads.
The MontWASHINGTON TWP. — gomery County Commission has authorized the purchase of a property in Washington Township to help with the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Alex Bell and Mad River roads.
The county has considered changes to the intersection, which is now a four-way stop, since June 2017 and conducted a traffic sur- vey to determine how to resolve congestion and safety issues.
The Montgomery County Engineer’s Office was authorized to make an offer of $245,000 to purchase property at 1424 W. Alex Bell Road. The owner of the property, Carmela Brookhart, accepted the offer.
County Engineer Paul Gruner said the property purchase is just one of a handful to be completed as the projectmoves toward completion.
“It’s the only total property,” he said about the land purchase. “There will be strips of right-of-
way from three or four other properties, and the amounts (costs paid for the properties) will be determined during the detailed design.”
A roundabout is more cost effective than a traffic light at the area, according to the engineer’s office. The cost of construction and right-ofway acquisition for a traffic signal, including turn lanes, was estimated at $1.8 million. The estimated cost of construction plus land acquisition for a roundabout was $1.5 million.
Federal funding will pay for around 90 percent of the project, Gruner said. The funding was secured a year earlier than originally thought.
“We were able to obtain federal funds for an earlier year, so construction will begin in fiscal year 2022, which is July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022,” he said.
The intersection, which sees an average of around 9,000 drivers daily, can be extremely congested, according to the engineer’s office. Gruner said the intersection is the second or third top crash location in the county.
He added that there have been 40 crashes in a 3-year-period, 19 of them injury crashes.
The roundabout is projected to improve traffic flow, reduce crashes by 35 percent, reduce injury crashes by 76 percent and reduce fatal crashes by 90 percent.
The next step for the project will be selecting a consulting firm for the roundabout’s final design. There will also be a review of environmental review to look at potential impacts on historic sites and other environmental concerns.
“We just received proposals for detailed engineering and environmental studies,” Gruner said. “We will select a consultant and have them under contract in about a-month-in-ahalf to two months.”
Not all residents are enthusiastic about changes to the intersection.
M.J. Erickson, a Washington Twp. resident who lives near the intersection, said she doesn’t mind driving through it. She said it only gets backed up during rush hour from about 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
“I don’t know that it’s broken,” Erickson said. “I would rather not fix what’s not broken.”