New traffic study could lead to yet another Richland County roundabout

Richland County could get a traffic control roundabout at another rural intersection. County commissioners on Tuesday approved a $12,975 contract with EMH&T Inc. of Columbus to study accident patterns over the last five years at the intersection of Middle Bellville and Orchard Park roads and come up with possible solutions to reduce the risk.

County Engineer Adam Gove said the intersection was among the top 10 crash sites according to information compiled by Richland County Regional Planning in 2022.

“They’re typically injury accidents,” he said. “There are flashing stoplights on Middle Bellville Road. Orchard Park Road traffic does not stop.”

Gove said the consulting firm will identify crashes and any crash pattern at the intersection and develop counter measures such as additional signage or clearing the right-of-way.

“It will also explore future possible solutions, whether it’s a four-way stop, a light, even possibly a roundabout. Those are the long-term solutions,” he explained. “This is kind of that first step in identifying what the problem is, any short term solutions and then any long term solutions if those short term solutions don’t work.”

Gove pointed out that the study is needed if the county goes after additional safety grant funding as it has with other intersections.

Gove was asked if a roundabout at Middle Bellville and Orchard Park would be more difficult to design because there is a house at one corner with a drive that comes out at the intersection.

“I don’t know until we have a footprint of what that roundabout may look like if that’s what we go with,” he said, adding that it is a possibility the path of the road could be shaped away from the house.

According to the contract, the study is to be completed by Dec. 2. Ninety percent of the cost of the study will be paid for with a federal safety grant, as were roundabouts at Middle Bellville and Straub Roads and at the intersection of South Illinois Avenue and East Cook and Mansfield-Lucas Roads as well as several other intersection improvements.

Gove said there currently is no timeline for action after the study is completed.

“It all depends on what the study concludes. Maybe we do some short term fixes and see if it’s an improvement or even if we need to pursue any project after that,” he said.

Noble Road project almost finished

Gove also reported that a project to rebuild around 1,800 feet of Noble Road between the current and former entrances to the Rumpke landfill is nearly complete. He said the contractor just applied the surface course of asphalt on Saturday and that there still is some ditch work and drainage work that needs to be completed.

“That section of road will be able to handle the truck traffic going to the landfill,” he said. “We still need to explore improving from State Route 13 to where this project started – it’s about another 1,500 to 1,800 feet – because it’s starting to deteriorate pretty bad as well.”

County copier contract extended

Commissioners also agreed Tuesday to a second one-month extension with Toshiba through the end of August of a cost per copy contract for copiers and material to allow a switch over to a new supplier. The board voted in June to award Modern Office Methods of Ontario a three-year contract with two renewal options, effective Aug. 1, following a review of submissions to a request for proposals.

Modern Office representative Kyle Swigart told the board his company was not able to get all 90 machines delivered by the July 31 because, as generally is the case with large orders, the manufacturer did not allow the local firm to use its inventory and restock later.

“Our guys have reached out to each persons’ IT and gathered all the information so when the machines come in they’ll be reloaded with everything you had before and it’s going to be as plug-and-play as you can get, other than putting in a couple of passwords,” Swigart said.

Commissioners also held an executive session to open submissions to a request for proposals for trash containers and trash removal service for county office buildings. After the session, commissioners said Central Services Administrator Rachel Troyer will review the proposals and come back later with a recommendation for a contract.

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: New traffic study could lead to yet another Richland County roundabout