Most of those attending a Thursday afternoon public hearing on traffic improvements in the area of Stadium Boulevard and Jefferson Street seemed to favor what was being proposed.
The hearing at Jefferson City Hall focused on preliminary designs for the project, which looks to address traffic backing up onto U.S. 54 from the off-ramp at Jefferson Street and congestion on Stadium Boulevard.
At the Jefferson and Stadium intersection, a dual-lane roundabout would be put in with a right-hand slip lane coming off the U.S. 54 exit ramp through Stadium to Christy Drive.
"I'm glad that they won't be taking much away from area properties for this project," said area resident Marjorie Dampf. "Our first experience with roundabouts was 30 years ago in England when we drove through that country and that was difficult, but we found and what I've seen here is, that it keeps traffic moving. They also pointed out to me that if you're in an accident in a roundabout you're less likely to be injured because you are going a little slower, something I hadn't thought about. They had an excellent group explaining it, and I think it's good the way they are doing it, not just telling us they're going to do it and all of sudden here it is."
The project would also widen Stadium back to the Trinity Lutheran Church driveway.
"A lot of our students from our parochial school exit onto Stadium every day, and there is a lot of traffic from us as well as Helias and Jefferson City High School so we want to make sure our parents get out of our parking lot safely everyday," said Sam Powell, associate pastor at Trinity Lutheran.
"We've seen accidents happen at the current intersection so I think we're excited about the possibility of a roundabout. We know that something needs to be done. I'm personally a big fan of roundabouts, and I think it will move traffic through the area safely. We know where we sit there will have to be some land to give for this project, but that's OK. It's not going to affect major operations, and we know it will make that whole area look a lot nicer."
This is the second phase of improvements in the area of U.S. 54 and Stadium Boulevard.
The first phase, in conjunction with the expansion of Capital Region Medical Center, includes a roundabout, making Monroe Street a two-way street from Woodlawn Avenue to Stadium, a traffic signal at Monroe-Stadium and widening Stadium to make it five lanes for left-turn pockets.
Public works officials said this is the last major joint project between the Cole County and Jefferson City to be done with current capital improvement sales tax money. State road fund money is also being used with an estimated total of about $4 million for both projects.
The Monroe Street part of the project could be done by the end of this summer. The Jefferson/Stadium roundabout could come in the summer 2016, depending on the progress of the Lafayette Street interchange project on U.S. 50, which may require some coordination of work.