| By Big Radio News Staff |
Milton’s busy intersection at John Paul Road and West Madison Avenue could become a roundabout.
Milton’s received a recommendation from the state Department of Transportation to convert the commuter-heavy intersection that routes thousands of cars a day through the center of the city by 2030.
The city would be responsible for fronting $75,000 of design costs, under a proposed cost sharing agreement. State road funds would pay for the rest of the 1-point-five-million dollar project.
The Milton City Council must give final approval to spend on designs before the DOT starts to draw up formal plans to improve the intersection at John Paul and West Madison.
DOT project engineer Christopher Wells says the change comes as 10 of 22 the crashes at the intersection over the last five years have left people injured.
He says the crash data is one major reason the intersection is being slated for changes. Wells calls the number of crashes at a mainly residential intersection “significant.”
About 10,000 vehicles pass through John Paul and West Madison, including a volume of commuters. It ranks as the city’s busiest intersection.
The city says in a memo to the Public Works Commission the state would likely build a “compact” roundabout at the intersection.
Wells says the DOT has preliminary concepts for the roundabout. He says it would be designed with a center that would be much smaller than a typical roundabout. Wells says that’s a strategy to fit a roundabout into a standard intersection while minimizing how much the traffic circle would cut into residential properties at the intersection
The state also vetted two-way and four-way stops at John Paul and West Madison. Wells says a roundabout configuration scored best for improvements to traffic flow at the intersection.
