Work got underway Monday at the intersection of Harville Road and Langston Chapel for the construction of a traffic roundabout – though not at the expected pace due to heavy rains overnight Sunday.
The intersection will be closed to through traffic for up to 90 days – through Oct. 6 – to complete the roundabout.
Local traffic access is being monitored by workers with J.A. Long Concrete Paving, which is the contractor for the construction. Access to Elmer Phillips Road off Harville Road will be blocked. Elmer Phillips may be accessed off Carrington Drive, which intersects Highway 67, just east of the Fair Road/Burkhalter Road intersection. Langston Chapel Road will be blocked at the intersection and can only be accessed coming from the east.
Currently, traffic controls at the intersection consist of stop signs on Langston Chapel Road and on unpaved and less-traveled Bethel Church Road, which would also join the roundabout. Harville Road now passes through unimpeded, curving sharply where it meets Langston Chapel Road.
While the Langston Chapel and Bethel Church roads would each meet the roundabout at a single point, Harville Road would intersect it from both sides, so the roundabout would have a total of four ways in and out.
This state funded and directed project is estimated to cost $3.75 million, including $2.46 million for construction, $390,000 for acquiring right of way, $180,000 for utilities and the previously authorized $720,000 for preliminary engineering. Paving contractor J.A. Long is based in Fortson, Ga., which is near Columbus.
Reducing crashes
Planning for the Langston/Harville roundabout “originated from the need to address a total of 25 crashes that were reported between 2012 and 2016,” the Georgia DOT stated in a 2021 report. Seven of those crashes resulted in at least one person being injured, but no deaths were reported from crashes at the intersection during the four-year period analyzed.
A traffic engineering study looked at traffic volumes at peak periods, the crash history and road geometry. The study compared the effects a traffic signal and a “roundabout alternative” would have.
The roundabout will consist of a 20-foot-wide circulatory roadway, with an elliptical island in the middle surrounded by a truck apron, a slightly raised surface that large trucks can run over to negotiate the turns. Curb-and-gutter would be installed around the outside of the oval and inside the truck apron.
As at other roundabouts, there would be no signal lights, only signs. These would include yield signs and roundabout signs, with three arrows in a circle and an indication of 25 mph as the safe speed inside the roundabout, dropping from posted speeds of 45 and 35 on the various approaches.