LAKEPORT, Calif. – State officials are looking at ways to make a south county intersection with a high collision and fatality rate safer, and one of the solutions that’s being considered is the installation of a new roundabout.
Caltrans District 1 Director Charlie Fielder met with county officials and a representative from Congressman Mike Thompson’s office on Thursday afternoon to discuss what he said was a very preliminary proposal for a new roundabout at Hartmann Road and Highway 29 outside of Hidden Valley Lake.
The informal meeting in the Board of Supervisors’ chambers at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport included Middletown area Supervisor Jim Comstock, Thompson representative Brad Onorato, Valley Oaks developer Ken Porter, county Deputy Public Works Director Lars Ewing and Public Works’ special projects engineer, Todd Mansell.
“We’ve had some concerns with the collision rates we’ve been seeing at Highway 29 and Hartmann Road,” Fielder said.
It was because of those collision rates that in July 2011 Caltrans announced its plans to install a three-way stop at the intersection, as Lake County News has reported. The stop sign installation was completed in October 2011.
Caltrans statistics showed that, between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2011, there were 27 collisions at the intersection, including two fatals, 13 injury crashes and 18 broadsides.
Those numbers put the fatality rate at 15 times the state average and injury collisions at six times the statewide average, while the overall crash rate is five times the state average.
When it announced the three-way stop, Caltrans wasn’t planning to install a stoplight due to concerns about the intersection’s orientation, which has a 1,000-foot radius horizontal curve with a 10-percent cross slope.
Caltrans continues to have that opinion, with Fielder saying Thursday that a traffic signal won’t work due to the way the intersection is oriented.
The stop signs, however, have worked well as an interim solution, Fielder said, with Comstock agreeing.
Fielder said Caltrans had planned to seek grant funding in order to support the county improving the intersection, but the grant didn’t come through.
Caltrans therefore decided to look at other options, with Fielder explaining that his engineers believe a roundabout can work there.
“Roundabouts get mixed reviews,” Fielder conceded, but said a new roundabout in Nice at the corner of Highway 20 and the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff appears to be working well. “People are adapting to it very quickly.”
There also is a new roundabout, completed at the end of 2011, at Highway 1 and Simpson Lane in Fort Bragg, Fielder said.
“This is the direction we're heading right now,” said Fielder. “It's not a done deal by any means.”
He said there needs to be more research and public outreach before a final decision is made. “Initial investigations are showing this is a viable option.”
One of the benefits of roundabouts is that there is essentially no maintenance cost, Fielder said.
Comstock, who admitted to not being a fan of roundabouts, questioned how a roundabout would handle the traffic volume at the busy intersection, one of the entry points into the Hidden Valley Lake subdivision. Fielder said it will work better than the stop signs do currently.
Fielder said Caltrans will continue its studies of the intersection before making a final decision.
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