Engineers, school leaders outline larger plan for Olympic Drive roundabout to ease school pickup backups

County engineers and a representative from Atlas Engineering outlined an expanded design concept for a planned roundabout at the T intersection of Olympic Drive and South Side Drive aimed at reducing morning and afternoon stacking problems at nearby schools.

Alan Smith of Atlas Engineering presented photos and a conceptual layout showing vehicles stacking back from the South Side Drive entrance and causing backups onto the adjacent road. Smith said the roundabout typically improves safety compared with a traffic signal but can struggle during peak school drop-off and pickup when multiple schools feed the same intersection. He proposed adding additional stacking lanes and a bypass lane so through traffic could avoid circulating inside the roundabout, and described options to provide almost 400 additional feet of stacking between the closest and furthest drives.

Commissioners and parents in the room asked practical questions about whether the additional lanes could extend all the way back to Olympic Drive, how the design would handle drivers traveling between the two nearby schools, and how construction could be scheduled to minimize impacts to school days. Atlas Engineering staff said they would study a concept that provides more stacking, potentially adds a bypass lane and examines a dual-lane approach where necessary, and noted the middle-school loading area currently functions acceptably while the primary school creates the largest queue.

No vote was taken. Commissioners and school officials expressed general support for advancing design work and asked staff to prepare a scope and cost-split proposal for review by both boards. Engineers said the next step is to produce updated drawings that expand the scope to include the east corner near the pool and the approach to Ashley and to bring that scope to the boards along with a proposed funding split and schedule.