RECENT COMMENTS
DPW to begin construction on 25th Street Gateway Roundabout
The City’s Department of Public Works will begin construction on the 25th Street Gateway Roundabout Streetscape on Monday, September 15, 2008. The project is expected to be completed on Monday, February 23, 2009.
The City is committed to improving pedestrian and motorist safety for its citizens as this roundabout will be engineered to control speed within the intersection, and significantly improve traffic flow for motorists.
SCOPE OF WORK:
· Construct Roundabout at the center of the intersection
· Resurface the intersection and a portion of 25th Street, M Street, and Jefferson Ave
· Raised medians on all approaches on 25th Street, M Street, and Jefferson Avenue
· Construct a mountable concrete apron around the center traffic island
· Improve existing drainage and provide landscape on the approach medians and center traffic island
· Complete brick and concrete sidewalk improvements
Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) bus stops at this intersection will be given alternate locations during construction. GRTC will notify riders of alternate pick-up and drop-off locations. Motorists should anticipate some delays during construction and alternate routes are highly recommended.
PREVIOUSLY:
McQuinn’s 7th District meeting at Mt.Sinai (11/10/07)
traffic circle coming to M street; other DPW projects planned (9/17/05)
We probably ought to be vigilant about remembering to patronize Que Pasa during all this. This type of construction always has a way of putting the damper on adjacent businesses.
This is smart, doing construction before a big election at a polling place. It was already going to be difficult parking wise around there. I do think the work is needed, but the timing of it is just bad.
Finally! I think traffic circles are very cool and hope to see more of them in Richmond. No more sitting at a red light when there is no other traffic on the street. Maybe a traffic circle would improve the whacky intersection at Jefferson and Clay. While DPW is working in Church Hill maybe they could remove the stop light at Broad and 29th streets. Why in the world do we need a light there? Stop signs would do fine and would improve traffic flow.
I think this is an excellent and much needed improvement for the neighborhood. I agree that we need to visit Que Pasa as often as possible during construction. I am, however, a little concerned about the “concrete sidewalk improvements” portion. What concrete sidewalks?
Brad,
Years ago they took that stop light out and there were so many accidents that they put it back in that intersection. Maybe now that there are other 4 way stop signs it will not be as bad.
I guess no plans for bike lanes in this infrastructure upgrade… Too bad. Lombardy got them when they added a traffic circle there.
And circles are far better than 4-way stops, they actually do a better job of slowing traffic and also reduce emissions by cutting out unnecessary idling& acceleration. I hope they do it well at this intersection so we can get more!
This is going to be great investment in the public infrastructure, I’m very excited to see this finished product (along with the old traffic lights being taken down).
John, do you have a higher resolution image of the plans? I’m curious about the kind of landscaping they’ll be using. Either way, though, this is very exciting!
I wonder if it will really only take 5 months to complete 😉 The intersection is also not that big, I wonder how the buses will navigate the space, but I guess someone has thought about that.
Are roundabouts in Richmond really safer to cross for pedestrians or cyclers? I have the impression that drivers down here are much less aware / more careless about pedestrians than in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, etc. where these things come from… Wikipedia cites an interesting study about that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundabout