If you got through Apponaug a little faster this week, it may be because there’s one fewer set of traffic lights.
The first of the signals to be eliminated with a series of five roundabouts is …
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If you got through Apponaug a little faster this week, it may be because there’s one fewer set of traffic lights.
The first of the signals to be eliminated with a series of five roundabouts is now blinking and will be removed in the foreseeable future, state Department of Transportation spokesman Charles St. Martin said Tuesday. The lights are at the base of the Post Road extension where it intersects with Post Road and Veterans Memorial Drive.
In place of the lights, motorists are getting the first feel of a roundabout with the ability to navigate the intersection without coming to a stop.
And it’s a new experience for some, as witnessed Tuesday morning. Many motorists on both the Post Road Extension and Post Road came to a stop even though there was no traffic as they arrived at a giant circle that, for a first time since the project started more than a year ago, no longer leaves a roundabout to imagination.
Introducing the driving public to the roundabouts as they are partially completed has been part of the DOT’s plan. As sections of roundabouts and semi-roundabouts like that at William’s Corner are completed, traffic is directed into the counter-clockwise spin that is envisioned as the ultimate panacea to the Apponaug traffic jam.
But don’t expect to make complete turns on these roundabouts for at least another year.
That’s because Veterans Memorial Drive will remain one way heading west until its extension to a roundabout at Toll Gate and Centerville roads is completed in late 2016. St. Martin said two-way traffic would return to the drive with completion of roundabouts at its intersection with Greenwich Avenue as well as Toll Gate and Centerville roads.
The last of the roundabouts to be built will replace Apponaug Four Corners, and that work isn’t scheduled to start until late next year. Overall, the $29 million construction project being built by Cardi Construction Co. is to be finished by late 2017.
Two-way traffic through the village is but a distant memory, if at all for many.
With the village moribund by traffic especially during the morning and evening commutes, the existing rotary system was implemented as a temporary solution in the mid 1970s. Former Mayor Lincoln Chafee pursued construction of an Apponaug bypass so as to restore a pedestrian-friendly village and reduce delays for motorists. City funds were allocated for design work, but it wasn’t until Chafee was a U.S. senator that significant federal funds became available for the project. Even then, it took years for the project to evolve. During the planning phase, the concept of roundabouts in place of conventional signalized intersection was introduced. The concept that has been applied in other parts of this country and extensively in Europe is to keep traffic flowing, albeit at reduced speeds, and that the actual time spent in transiting a single or series of intersections is reduced.
Traffic engineers outlined the proposal during hearings that involved the Apponaug Improvement Association, the Central Rhode Island Chamber of Commerce, the city and the public. The plan received strong endorsement.
St. Martin said the project is on budget and about a month ahead of schedule.
You might say things are starting to spin.
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Thecaptain
The "spin" is that the amount of code violations is incredible. Shoddy construction, substandard DOT oversight, engineering abortion.
Thursday, November 5, 2015 Report this
Justanidiot
I am appalled at the fact that there are code violations. Could you please cite some examples. Thanks.
Friday, November 6, 2015 Report this
RISchadenfreude
Roundabouts, or rotaries as they used to be called, should be interesting with Rhode Islanders' driving habits- they have trouble driving STRAIGHT on a sunny day. The joke in Europe is that if the population in a certain region gets too high, they build a few roundabouts and let Darwin do the rest; there's a reason rotaries went away decades ago. Does anyone remember the carnage at the old Route 2 / 102 / Ten Rod Rd. Rotary?
Friday, November 6, 2015 Report this
Thecaptain
Drive through the Apponaug circular. Does the road feel smooth at the utility trenches that have been cut and repaved? Surface flatness is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of lack of code compliance. Go to RIDOT blue book and read a few chapters. You will not be happy.
Friday, November 6, 2015 Report this
Justanidiot
I will have to check the Blue Book for their standards and how to measure them. I will report back findings.
Friday, November 6, 2015 Report this
DanMurphy
I couldn't agree with RISchadenfreude any more than I already do. These rotaries only work if drivers cooperate, and that's not going to happen. These atrocities are Avedesian's idea, something to help Apponaug go all "boutiquey." They are also much more expensive than what we really need - a bypass/extension from the intersection of Greenwich Avenue and Veterans Memorial Drive to the intersection of Tollgate and Centreville Roads, open Veterans Memorial Drive to two-way trqaffic, do a little MINOR reconfiguration of the other intersections, including eliminating Post Road in front of City Hall as a convenient cut-through, and you're done - and what you'd have is the Post Road Bypass running from Greenwood to Veterans Memorial Drive to Centreville Road as one continuous road, and at a quicker pace than what we now have. And it would be long completed by now, and at or under budget.
I submitted this in detail to the DOT who told me the rotaries plan was safer...
BTW - if you want to see one of today's new and improved rotaries in action, check out the one at the intersection of Providence, East Main, and Central Street, and watch how the locals handle rotary driving. They stop in the rotary to let people enter, but don't stop while entering, and (this is my favorite) they go right to the brick-paved inner circle, which is there strictly for aesthetics and to put some size in the rotary - not be used for traffic. And when they want to exit the rotary, they just scoot out from that same inner circle, much like taking a right turn from the left lane - regardless of who's behind them.
Thank God it's a low-volume rotary most of the day....
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 Report this
DanMurphy
And let's not forget how important it is to Avedesian to buy union votes through unnecessary spending...
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 Report this