Work on the roundabout at Witte Road and Southeast 248th Street in Maple Valley will be done this week.
City officials will celebrate completion of the project with a ribbon cutting at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday before the Maple Valley Days parade.
According to information provided by Dan Mattson, the project is going to finished on time and about $1.4 million under budget, with the original cost of the project tabbed at $3.33 million. Maple Valley firm Goodfellow Bros. built the project. Funding came from a federal grant as well as from the city’s capital budget.
The roads have new pavement and bicycle lanes, Mattson wrote in a statement, while there are new sidewalks, fencing, crosswalks, drainage system and left turn pocket for southbound traffic entering Lake Wilderness Country Club Drive. As part of the process, all overhead utility wires were moved underground. In addition, there is now a connection to the Lake Wilderness Trail and a new trail overlook.
Improvements on Witte Road extend from Lake Wilderness Elementary to just past Nazarene Church and around the corners on Southeast 248th to the Greater Maple Valley Community Center and the Maple Valley branch of the King County Library System.
Work began on the improvements and roundabout in July 2010.
This roundabout will be the first in Maple Valley, a traffic flow alternative to signalized intersections that neighbor Covington has embraced in recent years for the same reasons it seemed to make sense for the intersection of Witte Road and Southeast 248th.
“Studies show they are safer for pedestrians and motorists, cheaper to operate and maintain, and better for the environment,” Mattson told the Reporter in April. “A standard four-way intersection, for example, has 32 points of conflict for cars and pedestrians, while a roundabout has eight points which are separated from one another. Roundabouts force drivers to slow down.”
While Maple Valley drivers may experience a bit of a learning curve, Mattson said, it will get easy in time if motorists remember that incoming drivers yield to pedestrians and motorists in the circle.
“The center island, ringed by a truck apron, provides plenty of space for buses and emergency vehicles,” Mattson said. “There are several advantages to a roundabout: traffic continues flowing without backing up; the intersection can carry 30 to 50 percent more vehicles than like-sized intersections during rush hour; and injury related accidents are reduced. In comparison to the present two-way stop, this roundabout will eliminate long delays for traffic entering Witte Road from Southeast 248th Street.”
Navigating a roundabout
- Slow to about 20 MPH as you approach the roundabout
- Yield to motorists already in the roundabout
- Yield to pedestrians and bicyclists in the crosswalks of the roundabout
- Bicyclists entering the roundabout need to use the bicycle lane rather than a vehicle lane
- Pedestrians and bicyclists should remember to look left and right before entering the roundabout and yield to cars that are already in the roundabout
If everyone slows to 20 mph and yields to pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles in the circle, traffic should flow well through the intersection.
