A new roundabout is on its way to North Grenville.
Construction is underway at the intersection County Road 43 and South Gower Road, as crews are clearing trees and making way for another roundabout.
Manager of Operations for the United Counties of Leeds-Grenville, Bill Guy, says their next step is figuring out where exactly to place it.
“What we want to do is minimize any disruption to any private property,” Guy said. “We’ve also got to consider the location of the utilities which are the overhead hydro wires right now. So, right now we’re in the process of determining the best footprint.”
According to Guy, high traffic volumes and the number of collisions at the intersection of County Road 43 and South Gower Drive triggered the need for intersection improvements
Initially, the county was looking at a traffic light intersection, but after consultation with the community in July of 2019, it opted to go for the roundabout.
“Traffic will be affected, there’s no way around that,” Guy said. “We should be able to keep traffic going in both directions during construction but it will be disrupted, there’s no way around that. Road construction delays traffic, that’s just the nature of the beast.”
The county says the intersection sees its peak hour traffic volume at around 935 vehicles.
Guy says the roundabout will reduce traffic speed in the area but it will also lead to an 82 per cent reduction in collisions.
“There’s a lot of roundabouts in place in Kemptville and there’s a few more that will be constructed with the road widening at 43 going on. It seems to be the intersection improvement of choice for the area.”
Guy says they expect construction to wrap up sometime in 2022.
Anyone who is looking for more information on this project can contact Guy at 1-613-342-3840, ext. 2426.
