Don’t count on roundabout along Warm Springs/Talbotton Road widening

The widening of Warm Springs/Talbotton Road is ahead of schedule, but don’t count on a roundabout along the 1.9 mile project from Fifth Avenue east to Hilton Avenue/Woodruff Road.

The $34-million project will widen the heavily-used, two-lane corridor to four lanes. A reader wants to know why there is no roundabout in the plans at Warm Springs Road and 17th Avenue, where five streets send traffic flowing into the busy intersection.

Rick Jones, director of the Planning Department for the Columbus Consolidated Government, said the project was in the planning stages for more than 20 years before construction started more than a year ago. When planners were talking about the project, roundabouts weren’t even a consideration.

Roundabouts are traffic-calming and controlling structures which require drivers to enter an intersection and turn counterclockwise until the vehicle reaches a desired exit. They are scattered throughout the city in selected neighborhoods.

“Maybe yes, maybe no on that,” Jones said of the idea. “What folks need to remember is this has been a 20-year project. It has taken this long to get to this point.”

During the engineering process, acquiring right-of-way and other work, sometimes ideas come too late. “That is pretty much what happened here,” Jones said.

According to the plans, 17th Avenue will be blocked before it gets to the intersection and turn into a cul-de-sac, Jones said. That will leave Warm Springs, Woodlawn Avenue, Talbotton Road and Elgin Drive handling through-traffic in the area. The Fall Line Trace, the walking and biking trail, must be considered with any changes in the area.

“I don’t know if it warrants one out there or not,” Jones said of the possibility. “All I know is yes, looking at the area and the way it’s configured now, it possibly could have been, but plans show 17th Avenue is going to be cul-de-sac and won’t have connections back to Warm Springs there.”

Another concern is how to connect a section of Talbotton Road that runs parallel to Warm Springs. “I’m not saying it couldn’t be done,” he said. “ I’m saying we haven’t done it. There is no plan for a roundabout at that point.”

A roundabout also would cut off or interrupt the Fall Line Trace. “All those things have to be taken into consideration when you do any type of designs out there,” Jones said. “It would really take some imagination. We wouldn’t have a problem cutting off the trail. You would have to go across there.”

Robinson Paving Co. is the contractor for the project. Crews haven’t run into any major problems, but the challenge is moving all the utilities along the roadway.

At the rate the work is progressing, Jones said the contractor might be able to complete the project in two more years — a total of three — instead of five.

“They are making good progress out there,” he said. “ Everything I can see and everything we have talked about, they are making good progress on that. They were given five years to complete it. They think they can do it in less time than that.”

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This story was originally published November 5, 2017 at 2:36 PM with the headline "Don’t count on roundabout along Warm Springs/Talbotton Road widening."