Roundabout Plans Under ScrutinyWINONA LAKE – Three alternatives for the roundabout in Winona Lake were presented to the town council Tuesday by A & Z Engineering.
The roundabout will be at the intersection of Winona Avenue, Argonne Road, Kings Highway and Park Avenue. It is expected to be completed by early 2022.
Jamal Anabtawi, owner of A & Z Engineering, made Tuesday’s presentation along with engineers Nitin Timble and Paul Howard.
In 2010 or 2011, Anabtawi said, A & Z did the “physical study for the town on what would be the best solution if the traffic flow or traffic capacity increased at the current traffic signal right now.”
When they did the study, they came up with a roundabout design. He said most of the traffic comes from the east going west toward Winona Avenue and north toward Argonne Road.
He noted that when they did the study, they had the support of the EMS, fire and other emergency services.
Timble presented the current traffic counts from the Michiana Area Council of Governments (MACOG). He said roundabout alternate 1 was designed in 2010 with a single lane going around the roundabout, which was OK in 2010 based on traffic count numbers. Alternate 2 also was a single-lane design. Timble said MACOG’s traffic count in September showed two peak times for traffic, in the morning and evening.
In the evening, about 700 cars come through the intersection at the peak hours from Argonne Road, with about 200 going toward Winona Avenue, 178 cars toward Park Avenue and 297 going toward Kings Highway.
“There is a lot of traffic, like 1,300 cars, coming toward the roundabout from Argonne and Winona,” Timble said.
He said there are about 160 coming from Park Avenue toward the roundabout. Coming back from Kings Highway, there are about 459 cars.
“What we realized when we did the analysis for a single-lane roundabout, with this traffic that we just received … we had to come up with a third alternate,” he said.
“What we concluded is this is the best-case scenario in 2028 or 2030, this would work,” Anabtawi said.
He said one of the hindrances to any design was the railroad trestle, but they tried to work around that the best they could.
With the latest configuration, Howard said, part of the roundabout is a dual-lane roundabout, “facilitating more traffic from the west to either go south, east or north. On the south half of that roundabout, you have the potential to have two cars in the roundabout at one time.”
Councilwoman Tecy Banta said that because of the railroad trestle, traffic will back up on Argonne Road no matter what. Anabtawi said the one lane going north under the bridge limits having any second lane.
Banta asked if anyone knew when the trestle was built, and Grace College professor Dr. Terry White said about 1880.
When Fire Department Chief Mitch Titus asked what the roundabout diameter would be, he was told 140 to 145 feet. The roundabout on Husky Trail in Warsaw is 110 feet.
It was pointed out that the Collier’s Heating & Cooling building at the intersection would not be there in the final design. Resident Jerry Nelson asked if the lane could be moved over once that building was removed. Anabtawi said it would cost more but they could look at it.
Former councilman Terry Howie asked if the drainage coming down from Argonne Road would be addressed. Anabtawi responded, “I’ll be able to answer that question once we get to the design. Right now, we just wanted the town council and the public to accept the concept only. The drainage will be the next part.”
Howard said, “This project will include new storm drainage. This project will include new drainage within the project area.”
