New Road Changes May Come in a Roundabout Way

City Council took the first steps in beginning road improvements on SR 91 from Post Road to Glenwood Drive at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Council unanimously approved an emergency vote to ask the Ohio Department of Transportation to include the construction of a roundabout at the intersection of Glenwood Drive in an improvement project scheduled to begin in 2015.

The original plans had reconstruction stopping short of the intersection at a full cost of $3.5 million, while constructing the roundabout would cost $5.75 million.

Depending on how much outside funding they receive, the construction could cost the city anywhere from $300,000 to $1.2 million.

City Engineer Amy Mohr said this stretch of SR 91 is a high-traffic road and will also be widened to add a third lane for left turns.

“That basically provides a protected left turn movement to anybody in driveways, side streets, etc.,” Mohr said. “We were getting a lot of rear-end accidents in that area.”

She said the city wanted to include the Glenwood intersection in the project because of the large amounts of traffic. A study by ODOT revealed constructing a roundabout would be the cheapest option and would reduce the impact of traffic both north and south of 91.

“For what you’re spending and the maintenance of traffic and the long-term effects, you really have a level of service problem at the intersection,” Mohr said. “And the cost to do that intersection is not that much more.”

Mohr said the city has a number of options to help pay for the needed improvements.

"We’re going to pursue all the avenues so there’s a best-case/worst-case for what the city’s got out of pocket here,” Mohr said.

Different programs such as the state resurfacing project, highway safety program funds, the Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study, and Ohio Public Works could offer a percentage of funds to bring the city’s expenses for the project down significantly.

This is the first part of a two-phase project. After construction is finished to Glenwood, the next step would be to add four lanes north to Solon Road.