Valparaiso to add new roundabout
The Valparaiso area, which saw some of the first traffic roundabouts in Northwest Indiana, will be getting another one soon.
The roundabout being built at Indiana 2 and Heavilin Road, near the Valparaiso Community Schools’ Heavilin School, is due to be completed in late September, the Indiana Department of Transportation says.
Like most other roundabouts, it will replace an intersection where roads cross at right angles with one where motorists have to slow down and negotiate a circular drive to continue on the same road or turn onto the other one.
Like other roundabouts, it probably will cause some consternation among drivers encountering it for the first time.
But Valparaiso-area drivers have had more experience than most in negotiating those intersections.
Valparaiso’s Eastgate roundabout, at the intersection of Lincolnway, LaPorte Avenue and Sturdy Road, was completed in 2008. It carries traffic to and from Valparaiso’s downtown, the busy shopping district on the city’s east side, and U.S. 30.
Not only was it Valparaiso’s first roundabout, Eastgate also was the INDOT’s first on a state route, according to the city’s website.
And for about a year, it was a frequent subject of comments to the Post-Tribune’s “Quickly.”
That has been followed since then by a roundabout at Valparaiso’s Five Points intersection and three along Vale Park Road.
And not far from the roundabout now under construction, INDOT completed one at Indiana 2 and Porter County Road 100 South last year.
Some drivers say roundabouts can be confusing and disorienting.
Proponents say they keep traffic flowing and are safer because vehicles slow down to negotiate them, and they eliminate “T-bone” crashes in the intersection.
At city intersections, roundabouts also eliminate the need to install and maintain electronic traffic signals.
INDOT seems to be convinced of the value of roundabouts, because more are in the works for Northwest Indiana.
A “dogbone” interchange, with roundabouts on both sides of the highway, is being built now at the Interstate 65 and 109th Avenue interchange in Lake County.
Others are planned soon at the intersection of Indiana 55 (Taft Street) and 73rd Avenue in Merrillville, and at Indiana 2 and U.S. 6 in LaPorte County, near the Porter County border.
Four other roundabouts in Lake County are planned but not yet finalized, according to Cassy Bajek, public relations director for INDOT’s Northwest District.
One would be at Indiana 51 and Cleveland Avenue in Hobart, and three would be at U.S. 231 intersections — west of Crown Point at Cline Avenue and Parrish Avenue, and east of Crown Point at Iowa Street.