Multiple Roundabouts May Be In Chatham’s Future

by Tim Wood

            CHATHAM --- Officials are considering the addition of three new roundabouts to Route 28 to deal with traffic concerns in West Chatham and the Crowell Road-Main Street intersection.

            The roundabouts were among recommendations recently proposed to address traffic issues at two busy intersections along the West Chatham Route 28 business corridor and at the multiple-road intersection at Crowell, Queen Anne and Depot roads.  In all but one case, roundabouts appear to be the favored alternative, according to Highway Director Jeff Colby.

            “There seemed to be pretty good positive feedback for a roundabout at George Ryder Road.  I’d say that is the leading alternative at this point,” Colby said of public reaction to the West Chatham proposal at a Feb. 4 public meeting.          

A computer-enhanced bird’s eye view of what a roundabout would look like at the intersection of Crowell Road and Main Street.  Chatham Village Market is at the lower left.

Concept for a roundabout at George Ryder Road and Route 28.

The Barn Hill Road roundabout proposal.

    A second West Chatham roundabout at Barn Hill Road, however, received a mixed reaction. Because of the space needed for the roundabout, it would bring two recently renovate historic properties --- the former Sou’Wester, now a Dunkin Donuts, and the LaRose house, future home of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association --- very close to the roadway, he said.  It would also shave some parking spaces off the adjacent Shop Ahoy Plaza parking lot.

            “We’re still undetermined about the best configuration at Barn Hill,” Colby said.

            Replacing the many-tentacled intersection at Crowell Road and Route 28 with a roundabout may seem like a stretch, but it actually has fewer impacts than several other alternatives suggested by engineers for Fay Spofford and Thorndike, the consults for both studies.  Other options included closing off Depot Road or making it one way going east from the intersection.  Neither of these options sat well with Deputy Fire Chief Richard Hunter; the fire department is located on Depot Road apparatus uses the Crowell Road intersection more than 1,000 times a year, he said.

            “That’s our bread and butter,” Hunter commented.  Initially he found “all kinds of things wrong” with the roundabout idea, but after considering the other alternatives, “it looked real good.”  He still has concerns about a roundabout at the location: large fire trucks can have difficulty navigating the tight circle, and “as soon as you hit the siren, everything in the rotary stops, and you have to negotiate around it.”

            A roundabout would also lack traffic lights to stop vehicles for pedestrian crossings, which is sometimes a problem at the downtown rotary.

            Colby acknowledged that there are concerns about a roundabout at Crowell Road, including the volume of traffic that passes through the intersection in the summer.  Vehicles often back up as far as West Chatham on busy summer days, and a rotary has the potential of creating gridlock.

            If a roundabout is chosen as a top alternative for the intersection, the engineers will run a traffic simulation based on summer vehicle count to determine what sort of backups might be expected, Colby said.

            “We’re not at that point in the design process where they’re doing simulations,” he said.  A roundabout at that location would also be less than a quarter of a mile from the downtown rotary; Colby said state officials have told him there are no impediments to having two traffic circles within that distance.

            A rotary makes sense for the George Ryder Road intersection, which has the largest number of traffic accidents of any town intersection, because there is adequate land available, Colby said.  That’s not the case at Barn Hill Road, which might be better off as a signaled intersection.

            For both projects, officials hope to reach community consensus on a single recommendation for the intersections.  Based on the input at the recent sessions, the consultants will present “more refined concepts” at one last public meeting for both West Chatham and the Crowell Road intersection.  The final concepts will then be presented to the board of selectmen, and then submitted to the state, which controls Route 28. Colby hopes one preferred alternative for each intersection can be presented to the state, rather than submitting multiple proposals and having state officials choose the future configuration of the roadway.

            “I’m hoping we can come up with one that we can all get behind,” he said.

            Once the state begins the formal design process, additional public hearings will be held at the 25 and 75 percent stages, Colby added.

            The next meetings will probably be held in about a month, Colby said.  Meanwhile, copies of the recent presentations including all of the intersection alternatives can be found at the town’s website; click on “Useful Links” and “Town Projects."

2/18/10