LR gives locals peek at design for traffic roundabout
Little Rock Public Works Department officials unveiled a proposed design for a traffic roundabout at Pine Valley Road and Kavanaugh Boulevard on Thursday.
The meeting was one of hundreds that the Public Works Department will hold throughout the city to unveil plans for road and drainage projects funded by the citywide sales-tax increase and the millage extension, both approved by voters. More than 20 residents went to the meeting Thursday night at St. Paul Methodist Church on Durwood Road to get a peek at the project they hope will make traversing the five-way intersection a lot easier.
“This is our first go at what we think will work in this intersection, but we are at the 15 percent design stage,” said Jamie Collins, a civil engineer at the Public Works Department. “If you see something, please bring those concerns to us. This intersection where it’s operating now is not a good intersection. A roundabout will require drivers to yield to traffic already in the roundabout and will ease some of the issues.”
The project should be finished about June 2014, he said.
Some of the concerns for the design included how much property would be taken to construct the roundabout, whether decorative landscaping or a statue could be included in the center of the traffic structure and whether the corners at turnoffs in the circle could be softened so there would be less danger of cars running over the curbs.
Collins said the curbs will be graded so that large delivery trucks or city buses can travel over them if needed without damaging the vehicles. Collins also explained that the city had tried to position the roundabout so that the property and right of way needed would be spread out and not affect just one owner.
The question of decorating the circle was a little more complicated, the department said. The city’s current plan is to plant sod on the circle part and decorative brick around the outside.
The staff said that if the neighborhood association wanted to partner with the city or Keep Little Rock Beautiful, other options including low-growing flowers and vegetation, a short wall less than 36 inches high or even a thin statue would be possible. Interim Public Works Director Jon Honeywell said the major restrictions would be in regard to obstructing a view of cars across the roundabout and maintenance, which the neighborhood would be responsible to perform.
He also said that if the neighbors wanted an additional streetlight, they would need to partner with the city and also commit to maintaining the light if someone were to hit it or if a bulb burned out. The electric utility does not maintain lights beyond those required under agreement with the city.
Other residents asked whether the city would post proper signs to let drivers know how to drive through the roundabout.
Honeywell and other staff members said the design was intuitive and roundabouts were made to help drivers travel through an intersection more cleanly than with a five-way stoplight or stop signs. He said, conversely, traffic circles, which have more severe geometry for travel lanes, are designed to slow traffic down in intersections where there’s a history of speeding or ignoring traffic signals.
The staff cited the roundabout built at the intersection of Rebsamen Park Road and Riverfront Drive. Drivers yield to cars already in the roundabout, which has directional arrows painted on the pavement, then enter and travel to their desired turn.
Collins said the city staff will take all of the suggestions and adjust the design where it can before coming back to the neighborhoods with an adjusted design.
The city will hold a public hearing to hear small design tweaks or suggestions for each of the projects approved for the coming three-year construction cycle under the sales-tax and millage funding. Those hearings will be advertised on the city’s website, on social media, in the newspapers and at neighborhood associations as they’re scheduled. The city staff will also put individual notices on the doors of neighbors close to where the projects are happening.
Honeywell said the plan does not include public hearings for the repaving part of the plan, but the contractors doing that overlay work will notify residents on those stretches several days in advance.