Springfield drivers are getting accustomed to using roundabouts, and while asking about roundabouts in a coffee shop or on Facebook might stir up some strong opinions, engineers are taking notice of Springfield’s adaptability.
Adam Humphrey, a professional engineer and the assistant administrator for the Greene County Highway Department, brought up traffic circles at a Springfield City Council-led discussion of transportation projects on Aug. 16.
“We’re starting to get used to the configuration of these roundabout intersections in Greene County,” Humphrey said.
Engineers and road crews for Greene County are using what they learned from one roundabout project and applying it to the next one.
Haseltine and 140
The intersection of Farm Road 115, or Haseltine Road, and Farm Road 140 will be made into a roundabout sometime in 2023, at an estimated cost of $2 million.
“It’s probably the most frequently noted intersection that we receive calls on today because of visibility issues and just increasing traffic numbers — a lot of close calls and accidents that result at this intersection due to the increasing traffic volumes,” Humphrey said.
The final completion date is to be determined. The project has some complications.
“There is a whole lot of utility equipment located on the southeast corner of that intersection that makes visibility a real challenge as motorists pull up to that,”
The roundabout will actually change the way west Springfield drivers navigate Haseltine Road.
“We’ll be shifting the footprint of this intersection north and east to get away from those utilities,” Humphrey said. “There is a lot of underground utility that we just wanted to avoid altogether.”
The intended start date has come and gone, but Humphrey said the actual start time likely won’t be until sometime in 2023, and that’s to give the winning contractor enough time to secure the materials needed to pave the roundabout.
“Material availability has been a real issue on some of these projects that we have been awarding lately,” Humphrey said. “We’re hearing from many of our local contractors just saying, ‘Hey, we’d love to be able to start this right away, but unfortunately, there are several components that we probably aren’t going to get our hands on until next year.”
Trucks loaded with Doritos
The Greene County Highway Department just finished building a roundabout at the intersection of Farm Road 146 and Farm Road 129. Work began May 2021, with the final pavement going down in May 2022, at a total cost of $3.4 million.
“A great deal of the project included widening both Farm Roads 146 and 129 to new three-lane sections,” Humphrey said. “The biggest change, really, to both of these corridors — if you were familiar with traveling those roads prior to the improvements, they were two-lane roads, fairly narrow lane configurations and we had open ditches.”
The ditches were not only open, but steep. The roads are now wider and have curbs and gutters to eliminate the ditches. The road has turn lanes in the middle, and new sidewalks run along both sides of both roads, with pedestrian crossings at the roundabout.
The roundabout serves traffic coming from and going to Rutledge Wilson Farm Park, a Frito Lay distribution site and a Menard’s store, among other businesses.
“We’re pleased with how that roadway improvement project turned out,” Humphrey said. “A huge portion of the cost on this particular roundabout project was attributed to all of the concrete pavement.”
D&E Plumbing and Heating, a Nixa company, was the primary contractor. Engineers from Greene County worked with some of the businesses in the area to decide on the scope of the project. Frito Lay runs a high volume of trucks up and down Farm Road 129.
“With the Frito Lay industry located just to the north there — we had discussions with them prior to this,” Humphrey said. “We wanted to make sure really two components were accomplished with the new intersection. One, it’s a pretty large roundabout footprint; we have to accommodate their large tractor-trailer units that they have that come out and are kind of exclusively using this access now as they come out to West Bypass.”
Because of an overall increase in traffic through the intersection, Humphrey said using concrete should lead to less maintenance and repaving in the future, as opposed to using asphalt as the primary material.
“We don’t have other roundabouts that we maintain in the county. From a snow removal standpoint to just regular pavement maintenance, it kind of changes the way that we approach doing work at that intersection.”
Danger level drops at Republic Road
A two-lane roundabout proved trying for Springfield drivers at first, but the Missouri Department of Transportation believes if Springfield can adapt to the diverging diamonds, its drivers can also handle two-lane roundabouts.
MoDOT engineer Brad Gripka commented on the roundabout at Glenstone Avenue and Republic Road as part of the meeting with the Springfield City Council. The $13.6 million project put a two-lane roundabout just south of the U.S. Highway 60 interchange with Glenstone Avenue.
With more driving lanes open and a new configuration for southbound Glenstone Avenue drivers accessing U.S. Highway 60 and/or Republic Road, Gripka said southeast Springfield is a safer overall driving experience.
“All of the accidents dropped off tremendously,” Gripka said. “All of the accidents were just completely eliminated with the addition of the new auxiliary lane coming off of Glenstone, it was just a huge improvement.”
Gripka said MoDOT opened up a lane at a time to introduce drivers to the interchange, which alleviated traffic backups. Gripka said drivers who regularly travel through the area got used to navigating the dual roundabouts.
“We had to add some additional traffic signs and pavement markings. It took traffic a little while to get used to the dual roundabouts — a lot of confusion for the city to get used to dual roundabouts,” Gripka said.
Driving ‘round Springfield
Other roundabouts you might love or not love:
The airport roundabout — This five-way roundabout sits just south of the Springfield-Branson National Airport, and is the primary gateway for most people accessing the commercial terminal. The five-way configuration can be confusing to some first-timers, who can end up on Kaylor Road/State Route EE instead of northbound Airport Boulevard.
The OTC roundabout — Just northeast of Lincoln Hall sits a more easily-navigable roundabout where Sherman Avenue, East Central Street and East Pythian Street meet. This is an excellent roundabout for inexperienced drivers to practice.
East Walnut Lawn and South Maryland — If you’re using Walnut Lawn to cut over from Campbell Avenue to National Avenue, or maybe you’re taking the back way to a CoxHealth clinic or the Meyer Center, you’ve been through this roundy. There’s not much to it and the visibility is good in all directions.
The U.S Highway 160 roundabouts — Part of the $18.6 million plan to widen U.S. Highway 160 from Springfield to Willard involved the development of these three sister roundabouts. There’s one at Highway 160 and Farm Road 94 near the rock quarry, one at 160 and Farm Road 103, and one at Highway 160 and Jackson Street in Willard. Contractors finished the project and the roundabouts in December 2020, so people who regularly travel between Willard and Springfield have a year and a half of roundabout experience.
Grant Avenue by Parkview — The first section of Grant Avenue Parkway has a roundabout near Parkview High School between Ildereen and Catalpa streets. The roundabout is designed to provide safer entry and exit to the Parkview High School main campus and to JFK Stadium.
