Abby Nadeau
Community Editor

The City of Forest Lake and Washington County have constantly been questioned by local residents for their choices concerning the seven roundabouts on West Broadway.

While some citizens believe the council is finally fixing a problem 20 years in the making, others believe the city has failed at listening to its tax payers.

The Forest Lake Times, decided it was time to take questions written in letters to the editor, along with some of our own, and ask Washington Countyís Associate Transportation Planner Mike Rogers to answer them.

Rogers, who is the project manager for the West Broadway reconstruction project, has spearheaded the project since 2004.

Over 65 questions were raised on such topics as planning, logistics, emergency vehicles, public works, traffic flow and the future.

Over the next month the Forest Lake Times will be printing Rogersí response to the questions along with supplemental stories.

Written below are a few of the questions raised.

Although the questions are in no particular order, these first couple discuss the planning of the roundabouts and what people can expect in the future.

1. What type of roundabout is being planned?

The circular intersections proposed for Forest Lake are not traffic circles or rotaries that many people have seen on the east coast. They are modern roundabouts.

Modern roundabouts operate differently than traffic circles in that they are smaller and have entering traffic yield to circulating traffic. These two changes lead to higher capacity and increased safety. Because traffic yields before entering the modern roundabout, it doesnít lock up like a traffic circle in high volumes. Also, because modern roundabouts are smaller, traffic can only travel 15-20 mph around them vs. 40-50 mph around a traffic circle.

The modern roundabouts being designed for Forest Lake are considered multi-lane. This refers to the number of lanes in the circulating roadway.

Currently the closest multi-lane roundabout is located in Hudson. A single lane roundabout is located in Maplewood.

a. What makes the two-lane roundabout the best option?

A multi-lane roundabout is needed because of traffic volumes. Just as a traditional intersection needs to have more lanes as traffic volumes increase, so does a roundabout.

2. What will happen with the Hardwood Creek Trail that crosses W. Broadway?

The trail will remain; however, part of the project includes the construction of a tunnel under, or a bridge over West Broadway for trail users.

This will allow the County to achieve its long term goal of increasing safety for roadway and trail users by removing an at grade crossing. An analysis is currently underway to determine which option is better.

a. Will it be relocated?

The trail may be relocated from the center to one side of the former railroad corridor.

This would be done so that the bridge or tunnel will not need to be reconstructed once rail is reintroduced to the corridor. Currently the Washington County Regional Railroad Authority owns the property and is preserving for future transportation uses.

b. How much would it cost to relocate the trail?

The cost to construct the tunnel or the bridge is approximately $600,000 and has been included in the overall West Broadway Avenue Project budget.

3. What type of streetscape is being planned as far as landscaping and vegetation in the center median and on inner circle of the roundabout? If not, when?

The discussion on the type of streetscaping has just begun. The City has hired a consultant to develop a downtown streetscaping plan that will be used as a guide for the remainder of West Broadway Avenue.

As the plan develops, factors such as sight distances for pedestrians and motorists, business visibility, and maintenance will be taken into account to provide a safe and attractive corridor.

There are specific guidelines for landscaping inside roundabouts that have been developed from the experiences of other agencies who have successfully built them.

For example, landscaping in the central island will be done so that you cannot see across the roundabout, but wonít distract drivers or attract pedestrians to cross into the center. We will be using examples nationwide to develop the Forest Lake landscaping.

4. Were other roundabouts around the country evaluated to decide if they would work in the Forest Lake area?

Yes, roundabouts in Wisconsin, Washington, and Maryland were initially evaluated to determine if they would work in Forest Lake. After that, roundabout corridors were evaluated in Colorado and New York to see how they operated and under what conditions roundabouts were implemented.

a. Is there any other project in the U.S. that has as many roundabouts as us? Was the traffic flow comparable to the W. Broadway corridor?

Yes, many areas are construction as many if not more total roundabouts as Forest Lake; however, to my knowledge no one yet has seven in a row.

They are multiple cities in Colorado that have four and five in a row off of an interstate or on their main commercial roadway.

New York and Wisconsin are currently constructing corridors with five in a row. Michigan has begun construction on a project that has eight roundabouts in its first phase and 14 total.

Traffic flow on these corridors is comparable to existing traffic West Broadway. The corridors in Avon and Vail carry significant tourist traffic during the ski season.

The New York corridor is nearly identical traffic wise to Forest Lake and the Michigan Corridor will carry more traffic.

b. How are those working? Have they been a success?

The Colorado corridors have been in place the longest and have been a huge success.

Before the roundabouts police were needed at the interstate ramps to direct traffic into and out of town. Now the traffic flows smoothly all year.

The Wisconsin and New York Corridors will be completed this year and early next year respectively. Both states have had great success with roundabouts and have roundabouts as a preferred intersection over traffic signals and 4-way stops.

Look in next weekís edition of the Forest Lake Times for more of Rogers answers, along with an article discussing other roundabout projects around the US.

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Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605