ARTICLE TOOLS

E-mail story

Comments

Printer friendly version

iPod friendly version

Share This

Text Size: A A A A

Chattanooga: Roundabout way to ease congestion

By: Cliff Hightower
(Contact)

Included in this article

Click to enlarge photo

Click to enlarge photo

Click to enlarge photo

The thought of driving in circles used to drive City Councilman Jack Benson crazy.

When news broke about roundabouts coming to the intersection of Gunbarrel and Standifer Gap roads, his phone rang off the hook from worried drivers.

“No one wanted roundabouts in our district,” Mr. Benson said. “There was too much trepidation and fear of the unknown.”

But Chattanooga Traffic Engineer John Van Winkle convinced Mr. Benson the roundabout was needed, and the city put it in last year. Now traffic in the area flows smoothly and public perception has changed, Mr. Benson said.

“I’ve had many (people) call me and tell me how wrong they once were,” Mr. Benson said.

City officials are considering building a ninth roundabout at the intersection of Shallowford and Jenkins roads, they said. The city’s Engineering Department is designing a roundabout for that location, but personnel did not return calls Friday seeking comment.

Construction on the roundabout should start in June or July, Mr. Van Winkle said. He could not give an estimated cost of the project but said roundabouts generally cost more upfront than putting in traffic lights. Afterward, though, the cost goes down, he said.

“You don’t have recurring costs of maintenance,” he said.

Lee Norris, deputy administrator of the city’s Public Works Department, said the roundabouts are “paying off.”

“People are shocked when they first come across a roundabout,” he said. “But people are a lot more receptive to it now.”

The first modern roundabout was placed in the city in 2001 on the Chattanooga side of the Bachman Tunnel leading to East Ridge, he said. The state put in two roundabouts below state Highway 153 two years ago at a cost of $6 million, officials said.

A roundabout at W and Mountain Creek roads cost substantially less at about $230,000, they said.

Mr. Van Winkle said no studies have been conducted on whether traffic accidents have gone down at any of the intersections where roundabouts were built. High numbers of accidents at the locations were not the problem, though, he said.

“These were not really built for accident problems as much as congestion,” he said.

Mr. Van Winkle said he sees potential for roundabouts correcting some of the city’s most accident-laden intersections such as the entrance and exits from Hixson Pike to Highway 153. That interchange is consistently one of the most accident-prone in the city, he said, and he has sketched out a drawing of roundabouts that could be placed on each end of the bridge.

Comments