Fairfield’s roundabout to be ready before school starts

FAIRFIELD — The roundabout under construction on South Highway 1 in Fairfield should be open before school starts this fall.

Fairfield City Engineer and Public Works Director gave an update on the project to the Fairfield City Council Monday night, and she said the project is going smoother now than when it started a few months ago.

The new roundabout is one of many changes planned for South Highway 1, which also will include a wider street, and a new sidewalk and trail between Libertyville Road and Fillmore Avenue, and those are just the improvements on the surface.

The roundabout at the intersection of Libertyville Drive and South Highway 1 will replace the previous layout of the intersection, which required traffic on Libertyville Drive to stop. Carlson said she hopes this will be a smooth transition to a new style of intersection. The main things to remember about a roundabout are that all traffic enters it by turning right into it, since the lane is one-way.

Carlson said the city chose this style of intersection because roundabouts are known to reduce the severity of crashes.

“At stop lights, people like to gun it to get through at the last minute,” Carlson said. “With roundabouts, you are reducing the speed through the intersection, and the crashes that occur result in less damage.”

Carlson added that another reason the city opted for a roundabout was that the state would not support installing a traffic light at that intersection, since the volume of traffic did not warrant it.

Construction on the roundabout and on the rest of Highway 1 began in May, and Carlson said she’s hopeful it will be mostly finished by this winter. Drish Construction of Fairfield is doing the earth work and rock, while Wicks Construction of Decorah is doing the paving. As they finish pieces of the road, they will open them to the public. For instance, the next goal they’re working toward is repaving the portion of the road between Buchanan Avenue and the driveway of The Well, one of the entities inconvenienced by the construction.

The Well has been using a temporary driveway to bypass some of the construction, but once its section of Highway 1 is paved, its normal driveway will be accessible to motorists coming from the north on Buchanan Avenue. Under the current configuration, motorists can only access The Well through a temporary road that was built on the northeast side of the intersection with Libertyville Road. The Southgate housing development south of The Well is also relying on a gravel road for access, which was built specifically for this project.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com