Meeting for roundabout project set Feb. 13

State highway officials plan an open house meeting from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, in Port Vincent on a proposed traffic roundabout at the intersection of La. 42 and La. 431, officials said.

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The $1.24 million project, which is set for construction this month, would be the first modern roundabout built by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development in the Baton Rouge area, highway officials have said.

DOTD has built roundabouts in other parts of the state, including in the Lafayette area, Hammond and Abita Springs, and has plans for more, according to its Website.

The meeting at Port Vincent Community Center, 18500 La. 16, Port Vincent, will allow the public to comment on the La. 431/42 project, DOTD officials said in a news release.

The T-intersection is directly across the Amite River from Port Vincent, which is in Livingston Parish.

The three-way intersection is a crossroads for commuter traffic between the Florida Parishes and chemical plants on the Mississippi River.

Stations set up at the open house will focus on various aspects of the roundabout, as well as other projects in the area, including future widening of La. 42 in Ascension, DOTD officials said.

Roundabouts are a modernized form of one-way circular intersection where vehicles move around a central island without traffic lights. Drivers enter and exit through a series of right-hand turns. Left turns are eliminated.

DOTD officials said in a statement that roundabouts are an innovative and cost-effective tool designed to increase safety, improve traffic flow and enhance intersection aesthetics.

A June 2000 Federal Highway Administration guide on roundabouts noted safety improvements they have over older traffic circles and rotaries: traffic entering a roundabout must always yield to traffic in the roundabout and traffic in a roundabout is forced to move at slower speeds than in some traffic circles.

Various studies also appear to point to the safety claims.

The FHWA guide references a comparison of 11 intersections in the United States that were changed to roundabouts. A 51 percent reduction in vehicle crashes was found after the changes.

Another 2000 study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety looked at 24 intersections and found a 90 percent decrease in fatal crashes and a 76 percent decrease in injury crashes, according to the FHWA.

In 2006, a far broader study by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies found total crashes were reduced by between 29 percent and 72 percent, depending on the kind intersection, according to information provided by the FHWA.

DOTD has set up a roundabout page with information on the Port Vincent project at http://www.dotd.la.gov/administration/public_info/projects/roundabouts/home.aspx.

For more information, visit http://www.dotd.la.gov, email [e-mail], or call DOTD’s Customer Service Center at [phone] or [phone].