Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Transportation Safety topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Safety study recommends roundabout at State Route 48 and Frederick Garland; consultants urge ODOT safety grant application
Summary
Traffic engineers found 13 crashes at the SR 48/Frederick Garland intersection from 2021–2025 (54% injury rate) and recommended a roundabout as the preferred countermeasure; consultants said the project meets Ohio safety funding criteria and urged the village to submit an ODOT application.
Traffic engineers from Choice One presented a safety study for the intersection of State Route 48 and Frederick Garland and recommended pursuing a roundabout and state safety funding to address a high proportion of angle crashes.
“For State Route 48, we run about 6,400 vehicles per day, whereas Frederick Garland is about 1,900 vehicles a day,” said Derek Lursman of Choice One. He and a colleague said they pulled crash reports from 2021–2025 and found 13 crashes at the intersection, of which roughly 54% resulted in injury. Ten of those crashes were angle collisions that pointed to sight-distance and conflict-point issues.
The consultants said they evaluated several countermeasures. An all-way stop was ruled out because the side-street volumes do not meet industry warrant thresholds and would impose unacceptable delay on SR 48. Turn lanes were technically warranted for some movements but unlikely to address the predominant angle-crash pattern. Traffic-signal warrants were not met across peak periods. By contrast, a single-lane roundabout would reduce conflict points dramatically and slow approach speeds; the concept plan attempted to minimize impacts to a nearby home and utilities and to accommodate truck paths.
The estimated price for a single-lane roundabout was roughly $3.4 million; a turn-lane option was roughly $2 million. The consultants noted that the intersection meets ODOT safety-program minimums (three crashes per year and a 30% injury rate) and said West Milton could apply for safety funds (a program that can cover up to 90% of design and construction). “You can apply for up to $6 million through the safety program in Ohio,” one consultant said, and they offered to prepare the March 31 application, adding that most required materials are in their study.
Council members asked about right-of-way takings, truck and farm equipment accommodation, local match timing and phasing, and how the village would handle construction engineering costs that are not covered by ODOT. The consultants said ODOT’s safety program direct-pays the 90% match and that the village would need to budget for construction observation and any local match phases.
Council reached a verbal consensus to pursue a safety-program application and asked staff and the consultant to prepare the formal resolution and application materials for the next meeting.
