By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
Drivers will not have to stop at any traffic lights between Brown Rd. and Clarkston Rd. in Orion Township, following the beginning phases of a construction project to Baldwin Rd. in 2017.
Instead, they will maneuver through five roundabouts, or more simply, a series of circular intersections, at a reduced speed.
The roundabouts will be located as follows: one at Judah Rd., one at Gregory Rd., one between Great Lakes Athletic Club and the Redwood Waterstone condo developments, one at Maybee Rd., and the last at Waldon Rd.
According to the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC), who helped design the plan, roundabouts improve public safety with 90 percent fewer traffic fatalities, 75 percent fewer injury crashes and 37 percent fewer crashes. Crashes that do occur, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, are less serious because typically they are low-speed sideswipes and rear end collisions.
In concurrence with the MythBusters, a popular science television series on the Discovery Channel, the RCOC also reports that roundabouts improve traffic efficiency.
In one episode, found here’www.wimp.com/testroundabout/, MythBusters tested the typical American four-way stop intersection against the European founded roundabout, and found that the roundabout improved traffic efficiency by 20 percent.
According to the RCOC, roundabouts increase road capacity by 30 to 50 percent, due to the continuous travel and additional capacity that two lane or four lane roads can carry.
Eighty percent of the project, or about $35 million, is funded with federal dollars. Ten percent of the funding comes from the RCOC, and the remaining 10 percent will come from Orion. Over the past decade, the township has preserved close to $4 million for the project, leaving it in good shape, according to Barnett.
Apart from adding the five roundabouts, Baldwin Rd. will also be widened from two to four lanes. Over the next year the RCOC will work to purchase the needed right-of-ways, surveys will be conducted the following year and initial construction will begin in the spring of 2017.
The design plans, which have already been approved at the local and federal level, are set in stone, Barnett said, assuring the township would provide informational ‘how-to? meetings when the time draws nearer.
For now, his major focus is beautifying the Baldwin corridor.
‘This is going to connect Brown Rd., which is getting a lot of development, to Gingellville, so it’s a real opportunity to create something beautiful that will last forever,? he said.
The project will include sidewalks on both sides of the road, with the possibility for stamped concrete sections, street lamps, and potential pocket parks and seating areas.
The township wants to involve the community with the design process, and Barnett is interested in putting together a citizen committee for additional input.
‘I want the people who live on the corridor to make the design criteria,? he said. ‘As much as this is going to be a difficult project, we need the upgrade.?