nothin Call It A “Round”-Breaking | New Haven Independent

Call It A Round”-Breaking

Paul Bass Photo

The chalk outlines on West Park Avenue weren’t of car crash victims this time. They marked the spot of a 24-foot radius concrete-and-granite circle designed to prevent any more victims at a harrowing intersection.

The outlines appeared at the sometimes-deadly intersection of West Park and Elm Streets at the eastern edge of Edgewood Park Monday morning as work began on a new roundabout.”

The third of its kind in the city, the big circle and three smaller teardrop-shaped traffic islands will force drivers to slow down as they pass through what’s now a winding raceway cut-through from Whalley Avenue toward the Boulevard. (The other two roundabouts are on Woodward Avenue.)

The city has committed $225,000 to the project, which will be carried out by Laydon Industries. Company President Jeff Laydon estimated the job will take four to six weeks. Officials called the project part of an emerging citywide traffic-calming”/“Safe Streets” campaign.

Click here to see the blueprint for the new roundabout.

First shovelers (from left): Former Alderwoman Liz McCormack, Edgewood activist Eli Greer, city traffic chief Mike Piscitelli, Laydon Industries President Jeffrey Laydon, City Engineer Dick Miller, 24th Ward Democratic Co-Chair Charice Dykes, Alderman Marcus Paca.

At Monday morning’s groundbreaking, or round”-breaking, neighbors spoke of how they’ve been pushing for a solution at the intersection for more than a decade.

Edgewood Neighborhood Association organizer Eli Greer described how West Park was transformed from an avenue to a highway to a death trap.” At least five people have died in car crashes over the past decade in or near the intersection, he said. Pedestrians feel unsafe crossing over to Edgewood Park. Speeders have toppled trees and crashed into houses.

People living on West Park know not to park their cars on the street on weekend nights, Greer said. Otherwise they end up with smashed side mirrors, or worse.

City Engineer Dick Miller said the roundabout will guide drivers without stopping their movement. The smaller teardrop-shaped barriers will slow them down as they approach the larger circle in the center.

Once neighbors get used to going around in a little circle, they’re going to enjoy it as much as we do,” said former Edgewood Alderwoman Liz McCormack, who originally pushed the city for the roundabout.

McCormack’s successor, Alderman Marcus Paca (at left in photo with mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga and Engineer Miller), praised her and the neighbors for their persistence.

I’m not taking any credit” for the roundabout, Paca noted. Rather, he said he’d like to see it become the jumping off point for a broader” improvement campaign in the neighborhood. He said he’s been assured that by the end of July new sidewalks will come to Eldert Street, where a woman sprained her ankle last summer. He’s looking to have two particularly choppy stretches of asphalt paved over, on Hubinger Street between Whalley and Eldert and on Hobart between Whalley and Elm.

This day is a long day in coming,” remarked city transportation chief Mike Piscitelli. And it is a reflection of a new day” in New Haven, of efforts to reduce travel speeds and car crashes. Piscitelli has been working for a couple of years now with members of a growing movement around town of people concerned about deadly collisions and pedestrian- and bike-unfriendly streets.

Dick Miller said that a roundabout is not always the solution. It’s appropriate for wide intersections, he said — like the one at West Park and Elm.

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