UPDATE: City council approves roundabout for Vandiver and Parker

UPDATE, 10:27 p.m.: The Columbia City Council unanimously approved plans for a roundabout in north Columbia.

In a 6-0 vote, the council sent the idea back to Columbia Public Works, which will begin acquiring the rights-of-ways and bidding the project for construction.

Director Dave Nichols said the department eyed a roundabout there for safety rather than traffic flow. The intersection has seen 14 right-angle crashes from 2011 to 2015, with six of them leading to injuries.

ORIGINAL: Two months after Columbia residents gathered at Blue Ridge Elementary School for an interested parties meeting regarding a roundabout at the intersection of Vandiver Drive and Parker Street, the proposal has made it to the Columbia City Council.

The council will hold a public hearing on the proposed roundabout at its meeting Monday night.

“Roundabouts have been controversial in Columbia and council has voted down the last few,” said Ward 2 Councilman Michael Trapp. “When I saw that this was going to come up I was nervous about it.”

Other roundabout proposals have not fared well at the council level, including a mini roundabout at Fairview Road and Rollins Road that has been particularly unpopular.

The proposed Parker Street and Vandiver Drive roundabout is in Trapp’s ward. He said that improving the north Columbia intersection has been a goal of his since he first began serving and is necessary due to traffic flow problems and the dangers that they pose.

“That was the second most dangerous intersection without a roundabout or a signal,” said Trapp. “There’s been a lot of crashes there and some of them have been severe.”

Trapp said he was pleased with the universal support surrounding this proposal and anticipates council support. Dozens of emails sent to the city ahead of Monday’s meeting are not only in support of the roundabout, but also request that the proposed 2019 construction date be moved up.

The requests to expedite the process seem to be made partly because Veteran’s United is moving to an office at 1500 Vandiver Drive in the fall and it’s estimated that more than 500 new employees would be working there. Fletcher Honda also has employees coming in and out on Parker Street.

“I ask you to please accelerate the time frame for this roundabout,” said one driver. “Other than the time it takes to get home, I also see a lot of frustrated drivers make unsafe decisions and am afraid it is only a matter of time before a serious traffic collision occurs because someone is tired of waiting.”

Another resident said the new roundabout would help alleviate visibility problems.

“This new roundabout is a necessity as more employees move into this area,” they said. “It’s already a headache to turn from parker onto Vandiver, as you don’t have good visibility. With the addition of several hundred commuters being added in the near future, I feel this project should be completed as soon as possible. 2019 is far too long to wait.”

Another nearby resident, who said she will be working at the new facility this fall, said that she would like to ride her bike to work, and the cross on Parker makes her nervous.

“Cars routinely exceed the posted speed, and visibility is limited because of a small rise,” she said. “Even if I am in my car, speed and visibility are a safety concern and a roundabout will help reduce speed. I encourage you to not only greenlight the roundabout but to also install it sooner than 2019.”

There were 53 emails attached to Monday night’s agenda for the public hearing and all of them were in favor of adding the roundabout and moving up the timeline.

“That’s a good sign that the public’s supportive of this process,” said Trapp. ” I suspect it’s already slated in the most aggressive timeline but I’m going to ask staff to see if we can move it up.”

Trapp said that the roundabout can also address some equity issues.

“Where the most safety issues are is taking a left out of Parker and that’s a lot of real modest and working class and workforce housing,” he said. “This roundabout is going to bring more benefits to the entire community and not just wealthier folks or the business interests who have expressed the most.”

A Columbia family has said it is willing to contribute $5,000 to the project if that can speed the process along.

(Editor’s note, 10:27 p.m.: This story has been updated from its original version with the latest information. The story was originally titled, “City Council to hold public hearing on Vandiver and Parker roundabout proposal”)