New changes are in place for West Hartford’s first roundabout.
Public works personnel drilled bright yellow bollards in a circle within the roundabout’s concrete center.
Compared to the current orange traffic barrels, the bollards are smaller. They’re made out of plastic.
“The bollards are flexible and are intended to deflect if inadvertently struck by a turning vehicle,” town engineer Greg Sommers told NBC Connecticut in an email. “Once the bollards are in, we’ll continue to monitor the roundabout to determine a more permanent solution, which could be implemented in the spring.”
Photos on social media have shown smashed orange barrels after trucks drove over them.
Neighbor Stephen Akomolafe said the barrels have been successful in getting most people to go around the roundabout instead of through it.
But, he said he doesn’t agree with turning the intersection into a roundabout in the first place.
“I don’t understand why they would make something so narrow in an area that has a lot of high bus traffic,” Akomolafe said. “It’s too tight.”
The town said it has been adjusting the placement of the barrels to accommodate the turning movements of larger trucks.
“Despite some of the minor issues with truck turns, the roundabout has been very successful in reducing overall speeds through the corridor,” Sommers said.
King Philip Drive has three schools in the area near the roundabout. The town also installed raised crosswalks as part of its Vision Zero initiative, an effort to eliminate the Town’s traffic death and serious injuries.
“The prevailing speeds along King Philip Drive have been reduced to around30 mile per hour, a drop of nearly 10 miles per hour,” Sommers said.
That’s welcome news to Jay Stage, a West Hartford resident who has students who go to schools in the area.
“They did something,” Stage said. “Instead of just ignoring the dangers that are at this intersection — and they made a design that allows people to walk, drive, and ride a bike safely through this intersection.”
Under the previous intersection’s configuration (a 2-way stop sign and free-flowing traffic), Stage said there were a lot of conflict points.
“I think the town did a great job addressing those dangers with this roundabout design,” he said. “The town’s doing a great job managing what’s a really tough thing to manage, which is people who want to go fast and get across town quickly versus people who want to survive.”
Stage, who came to the interview on a bike, said he believes the town is on the right track.
Bike West Hartford’s Ethan Frankel agreed. He said there is much more bike and pedestrian infrastructure in recent years.
“Bottom line is that we’re making huge progress,” Frankel said. “We have a long way to go, but we’ve got so much more than we used to have.”
Public works crews will be back to the roundabout on Friday to remove the barrels, leaving only the bollards.
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