Roundabout Eyed For Crescent ​“Highway”

For years, residents of Beaver Hills have been complaining about speeds at Crescent and Munson Streets. Now officials have put together a plan for a traffic-calming roundabout — if the city can find the money to pay for it.

That was the news at the latest Whalley-Edgewood-Beaver Hills (WEB) Community Management Team meeting, held Tuesday night at the Whalley Avenue police substation by Minore’s Market.

Twenty people gathered for the meeting, which also included a presentation from Southern Connecticut State University President Joe Bertolino and some end-of-year remarks. 

Plans for the roundabout come after years of community complaints, which escalated at a WEB Community Management Team meeting in mid-September. City Traffic, Transportation and Parking Director Doug Hausladen presented at that meeting; he recalled hearing concerns about Glen Road and Ella Grasso Boulevard, Carmel Street, and the pedestrian signal at Whalley Avenue and Orchard Street. 

“But most importantly, I heard very loudly about Crescent and Munson,” he said.

In the months since, he, City Engineer Giovanni Zinn and Civil Engineer Christopher Flanagan have been working on a plan. Early in the process, Hausladen said the two ruled out a traffic signal because the signals aren’t always effective, particularly when the light is green and a car is already going above the speed limit. Instead, they settled on a roundabout; Zinn noted that roundabouts are still relatively ​“rare in urban conditions.”

They’ve come up with a design: a 40-foot wide roundabout in the middle of the intersection, with a mountable curb around the edge and possible greenspace at the center. Around the roundabout, the team has proposed splitter islands (traffic islands) designed for speeds of 17 and 15.5 miles per hour. At the crossing between Bowen Field and Hillhouse High School, there’s a proposed raised crosswalk, with a four-foot section where the road dips up, and then dips back. 

With the current designs, school buses, fire trucks and even large tractor trailers are able to get through. Zinn said he knows that because the department’s software is able to simulate cars driving through. 

It’s ​“a concept of what Crescent and Munson could be like that we think solves various issues,” Zinn said. ​“What we’re trying to do here is make sure that traffic is able to flow through the area pretty freely, but also controlling speed and making sure that Crescent is not a highway.”

To accommodate the width of Crescent Street, Hausladen said, the design also includes a two-way cycle track ​“kind of around the roundabout” and against Bowen Field, to narrow the roadway and provide more access for cyclists.

“Historically or classically, roundabouts are not great for cyclists that are traveling with vehicles in the roadway,” Hausladen said, noting that it would be a first for the city. ​“There’s sight line challenges. However what we’re designing here is to pull the cyclists away from the intersection and be able to cross on the raised crossings and then be able to continue on in Bowen Field.”

Hausladen and Zinn noted that the project is still in its preliminary phases. The city’s Department of Engineering still needs to survey the land, and check dimensions. They’ll also need to see where the roundabout fits into plans for Downtown West Cycling Network, which seeks to connect downtown with the SCSU campus.

The problem is whether the city will be able to afford it. Zinn said that the design is in the ​“low six figures,” which is about half of the city’s traffic calming budget. He’s observed traffic calming needs on Goffe Street as well, and said that he’ll realistically only be able to pursue one of those projects in the next year.

“We want to make a road map,” said Hausladen. ​“Over the winter we’re going to finalize design, cost, estimates, and come together and ask to come back after the thaw.”

In that road map, they have a new partner: Sgt. Sean Maher, who has been leading the NHPD’s motorcycle unit since Aug. 1. (Read about that transition here and here.) In the past four months, Maher has changed the unit’s method of data monitoring and rolled out a traffic study on Crescent Street. He has 10 officers working with him — six on days, four on evenings — across the city.

What he discovered, he told the group Tuesday night, is ​“that that [Crescent Street] is quite the highway.” In six weeks, officers issued 73 speeding tickets on Crescent Street, and recorded drivers going up to 63 miles per hour. He said he has been meeting with Hausladen and supports the proposal.

Some neighbors expressed skepticism.

“This is what you presented five years ago,” said WEB Treasurer Bob Caplan, referring to a 2009 proposal under former transit czar Jim Travers that never came to fruition. 

“Are you serious?” Hausladen replied. He said he’d check his records, but hadn’t heard about such a plan.

Other hands went up in the room.

“Are there any grants available?” asked Scott Marks.

“It’s getting tougher,” he said. He explained that the city has won several state grants for community connectivity projects, like an initiative to boost bike lanes along Edgewood Avenue, but that funding is now in peril. There aren’t a lot of other local roadway grants for traffic calming, he said. Most state and federal money goes toward maintenance — ​“rebuilding roadways and things like that.” 

“Of course Massachusetts, and England, and countries like that are used to roundabouts,” Francine Caplan said. ​“Do you feel that it take a while to realize the etiquette of going into a roundabout?”

“You’ll see a number of signs that will be very explanatory,” Hausladen said. ​“But generally, any new bit of infrastructure, there is an adapting period.”

“We think that roundabouts are becoming much more prevalent in the state of Connecticut,” he added. ​“New Haven was the leader.”