Dead On Arrival.
It looks like the proposed Clintonville roundabout, and all the controversy it stirred up is now a non-issue. There’s no money to build it according to the Dispatch (see below). The cost of the one roundabout does appear to have been $17.8 Million. The ThisWeek article on the subject wasn’t clear if the $17 Million to $19 Million cost was for the one roundabout or for an ultimate concept including four roundabouts.
The Disptach article below also discusses whether or not a proposed roundabout should be built at Olentangy & Linworth now that the intersection is experiencing a lower crash rate than before.
Clintonville traffic circle idea killed
Monday, June 29, 2009 10:09 PM
By Mark Ferenchik and Robert Vitale
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCHColumbus officials have killed an idea for a proposed traffic circle at N. High Street and E. North Broadway in Clintonville because of high costs and concerns that it would require taking too much property from nearby landowners.
Meanwhile, a declining number of crashes at Linworth and Olentangy River roads have forced the Franklin County engineer to reconsider building a traffic circle there.
The Clintonville roundabout would have cost at least $17 million to build, planning and operations administrator Patricia Austin wrote in a letter to D Searcy, who leads the Clintonville Area Commission.
“There is no money for it. It’s simply not feasible,” said Rick Tilton, the city’s public service spokesman.
The total doesn’t include the cost of land acquisition, Austin said. She also thought the roundabout would take out a Starbucks and possibly a Kroger store at the intersection.
A Clintonville task force had estimated the project would cost $1 million.
The city had planned to build a left-turn lane from westbound North Broadway to High so people would not cut through side streets to head south on High. But some North Broadway residents oppose that idea, fearing their street would be widened.
The Dispatch story was full of errors. The $17 million figure was NOT for one roundabout. It was for four roundabouts, plus several medians on High and Broadway, and some other “complete streets” features. Details are on this site: http://www.clintonvilleareacommission.org/newsBoard/NewsDetail.asp?id=7926&cmid=2977&StartPos=1&nhl=1
Also, the city has not killed the proposal. Yet. It is awaiting a formal recommendation from the Clintonville Area Commission, which is awaiting recommendations from the north Broadway and North High Task Force, which has a couple more meetings before going to the CAC in August.
And the Task Force did not provide a $1 million estimate for a High/Broadway roundabout. The Task Force has made no dollar estimates, but one member provided his own estimate, which the Dispatch attributed to the group.