'The ideal improvement': Ashland County's first traffic roundabout opens

ASHLAND −The county's first roundabout at U.S. Route 250, state Route 60 and Faultless Drive, opened Thursday with a noon ribbon cutting.

Construction, which got fully underway on July 11, was expected to take 90 days to complete, but it finished early and the roundabout opened 10 days ahead of schedule.

The $2 million project is funded by Ohio Department of Transportation and Ohio Public Works safety grants.

The roundabout is expected to better facilitate the movement of traffic through the busy intersection, which is near an industrial park where many businesses are located, thus creating a mix of traffic — from cars to semis — Mayor Miller said before the project began.

"Over the years that has become one of our dangerous intersections," he said early this summer. "Now the good news is I don't believe we have had a fatality at that intersection but we have had many fender benders at that intersection."

Miller had said the possibility of adding a traffic light to the intersection wasn't feasible due to the way traffic flows and road alignment.

The finishing touches on the roundabout will be a stainless steel Ashland A that is being manufactured by Schoonover Industries and donated by the Norma Foundation.

Calling the new roundabout "the ideal improvement," Matt Walter, capital program administrator for ODOT District 3, said the circular intersection will help address the high number of crashes that have happened in the area over the years.

Walter said there are two other roundabout projects in development for Ashland County. They will be located at U.S. Route 42 and state Route 302, and at state Route 89 and state Route 302. Construction on those roundabouts is slated to begin in the summer of 2024.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: 'The ideal improvement': Ashland's first traffic roundabout opens