Home Notice Box Top Stories Work on roundabout to begin March 16

Work on roundabout to begin March 16

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XENIA — Construction on Xenia’s first roundabout is set to begin March 16 and will detour traffic for 90 days.

The single-lane roundabout will be at the Columbus Street-U.S. 42-East Church Street intersection, eliminating the stop lights and improving the flow of traffic and safety. The streets meet at an awkward angle as Route 42 touches East Church on a 42-degree skew, according to city officials.

Traffic will be rerouted to Old U.S. 35, Bickett Road and U.S. 42 according to Ana Middleton, Greene and Clinton County engineer for the Ohio Department of Transportation, which is in charge of the project.

The roundabout is estimated to cost $1.1 million, with around $230,000 coming from the city. The rest of the cost is from a federal surface transportation grant. City Manager Brent Merriman previously said that a portion of the local match will come from limited-use funds that can’t be used on just any street.

Once the project is complete, all left turns will be eliminated, creating a more continuous flow of traffic. The change will also help better accommodate traffic volume, which is expected to be nearly 6,000 per day on the north leg of North Columbus Street, according to City Engineer Chris Berger.

The original plan called for U.S. 42 to be re-routed to meet the intersection at a 90-degree angle, but that would have required the city to buy five or six houses, Berger said. The city’s consultant suggested the change to a roundabout, which required the acquisition of numerous rights-of-way but no home purchases.

Submitted photo
This is what the proposed roundabout would look like at the US 42/Church Street intersection.
https://www.xeniagazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2020/03/web1_3D-Roundabout-Board.jpgSubmitted photo
This is what the proposed roundabout would look like at the US 42/Church Street intersection.

By Scott Halasz

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Contact Scott Halasz at 937-502-4507.