Gurnee to convert congested intersection into mini-roundabout

Trying to end the backed-up rush hour traffic that plagues the Almond Road and Dada Drive intersection, the village of Gurnee this summer will close it down and replace it with what it's calling a mini-roundabout.

The village says the mini-roundabout will allow traffic to safely flow without coming to a complete stop, which is how the intersection works now.

Scott Drabicki, the village engineer, said the village decided to go with a mini-roundabout after seeing the design successfully implemented elsewhere. In 2012, the village built a mini-roundabout at Grandville Avenue and Ferndale Street, just north of Grand Avenue and west of Route 41. Drabicki said that mini-roundabout was a sort of test site to see how it would work in a small neighborhood. He said it worked well, so when the village decided on rehab work on Almond Road, the mini-roundabout was considered.

Drabicki contacted an engineer at the Federal Highway Administration who volunteered to review the village's plan. He said the FHA employee thought a mini-roundabout would be ideal.

Drabicki said the idea to convert intersections into mini-roundabouts has been catching on around Lake County.

"Roundabouts have been successfully proven to be a very good solution, especially internationally," Drabicki said. "The U.S. has always been further behind on roundabout implementation for whatever reason."

Drabicki said the Lake County Highway Department has installed four roundabouts in recent years, including one in 2015 in Lake Barrington.

Because it would be difficult for commercial trucks to negotiate the tight turns of a mini-roundabout, the raised circle in the middle of the mini-roundabout will be low enough to allow big vehicles to drive right over it when going straight or making left turns. Jack Linehan, the assistant to the village manager, said that was especially important because of how frequently school buses use the intersection.

To build the mini-roundabout traffic at the intersection will be shut down for a month beginning in July.

"We are intentionally avoiding doing the work during the school year," Drabicki said.

He said normally the entire intersection wouldn't be closed, but with such a drastic change Drabicki said he felt more comfortable doing so for safety reasons.

The mini-roundabout is included in the $1.2 million project to resurface Almond Road from Grand Avenue to Washington Street.

More information on the project is at gurnee.il.us.