By 1812Blockhouse
A long-planned feature for RIchland County roadways will be here soon, now that construction has begun on the new Illinois Avenue/Cook Road/Mansfield-Lucas Road roundabout.
First publicly announced in 2019, the new roundabout, just southeast of Mansfield City Cemetery, was designed to provide increased safety over the present configuration. A study released at the time showed that 15 crashes had taken place there in the 2012 to 2015 time period, with another 13 crashes occurring in 2016 and 2017.
A fact sheet from the public meeting on the proposal can be found here, and a video introduction is below.
Roundabouts are not modern inventions; the earliest precursor was likely “the Circus” in Bath, England, built in 1768. Post-World War II, roundabouts began to appear in the United Kingdom, and they arrived in the United States in the 1990s. Some states have many; Washington State had 120 by late 2016, for instance.
The Ohio Department of Transportation has a page dedicated to the traffic feature which discusses safety aspects as well as a providing a short video primer on navigating roundabouts.
Construction began this week and the intersection is now closed. Detour signs have been posted.
