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Five Points roundabout funded
POLAND
The federal government will fund in full the construction of a roundabout at Five Points, which is the intersection of Western Reserve, North Lima and Springfield roads on the Poland-Springfield township border.
The announcement was made by Patrick Ginnetti, Mahoning County engineer.
“We were told that we are the No. 1 project, and we are receiving funding,” Ginnetti said.
Funding for the $1.5 million project was confirmed in a letter the engineer’s office received Friday from the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.
Roundabout design will start this year, right of way for it will be acquired next year, and construction will take place in 2017, Ginnetti said.
The project goal is to improve traffic flow and safety in the intersection, and funding for it is coming from money dedicated to reduction of traffic congestion and air pollution from idling vehicles.
“Fabulous,” was the reaction of Springfield Township Trustee Robert Orr.
“It is good news because it keeps the traffic moving,” he said of the roundabout. “If you keep that traffic flowing and keep it flowing in a safe way, then it’s way better than what we’ve got now,” he added.
“At peak times, it’s always backed way up Western Reserve Road” because of motorists stopped at stop signs, Orr said.
When two or more motorists arrive simultaneously at the stop-sign-controlled intersection, they hesitate as to who should proceed first, and that causes traffic backup, confusion and sometimes, fender-bender crashes, he explained.
Poland Township Trustee Joanne Wollet, who lives near Five Points, also said the funding of the roundabout is “great news.”
During late afternoon, homeward-bound motorists who have left Interstate 680 and are eastbound on Western Reserve Road must wait several minutes to get to Five Points because of the traffic backup, she observed.
“Traffic’s meant to be in a constant flow,” which a roundabout facilitates, she said.
Some 29 accidents were reported in the intersection between 2007 and 2009, according to the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.
The roundabout at Mathews and Sheridan roads in Boardman, a one-lane traffic circle that opened last August, also was funded in full by the federal government.
That roundabout was built for $696,693 by Parella-Pannunzio Inc. of Austintown, while the intersection was closed for about 21/2 months last summer.
That intersection, which previously was controlled by a traffic light, now has no traffic light or stop signs and features a continuous, counterclockwise traffic flow.
Yield signs are at every entrance to the circle, and vehicles outside it must yield to those within it.
Orr and Wollet said they have driven through the Mathews-Sheridan roundabout and found it effective in facilitating traffic flow.