Coming in on time and on budget, the $4.1-million roundabout at Longyear Drive and Edison Road in Falconbridge will be fully open at noon on Friday, Nov. 4.
“We did a soft open just to get people used to it,” project manager Miranda Edwards told Sudbury.com during a tour of the partially opened roundabout earlier this week, joined by city engineering services director David Shelsted.
Until Friday at noon, the roundabout constructed by Interpaving Ltd. will remain partially closed off with pylons, allowing motorists to only make the first right turn.
With residents of Falconbridge having no other choice but to use the roundabout, and this being a first for the community, Edwards said it was important for people to ease into using it.
That said, it’s a straightforward one-lane roundabout with three entry points requiring motorists to yield going in.
A mailout was sent to area residents earlier this week, yield signs have been installed indicating how to navigate the roundabout and yield symbols have been painted on the pavement.
When the Maley Drive roundabouts opened, Shelsted said there was some public confusion regarding which drivers should yield, which the additional yield signage aims to help clear up.
The roundabout is the city’s fourth for an arterial road, and was necessitated due to a prior alignment of Longyear at Edison which included an s-curve with a left-hand turn without a turning lane onto Edison.
A roundabout, Edwards said, improves traffic movement in terms of no stopping for left-hand turns, “so for those large trucks going into the Glencore smelter, they can have continuous movement and don’t have to stop like the original alignment of the intersection.”
By reducing the number of stops, Shelsted said there are also less greenhouse gas emissions generated along this stretch of road.
Collisions at roundabouts are less serious, and the structure also slows traffic down going into Falconbridge, ensuring a buffer between highway and the town speeds.
In conjunction with the new roundabout’s creation is the decommissioning of an 800-metre stretch of Longyear Drive, which will be returned to nature and landscaped as a dedicated habit for migratory birds. Material pulled from the decommissioned road will be recycled for use on gravel roads in the municipality.
On the recycling front, all material pulled from the ground during the construction of the roundabout remained on site, with old asphalt ground down for use as shoulders.
The new stretch of road includes two-metre shoulders for active transportation, and the city consulted with Nickel Belt Snow Spirits to reinstate a snowmobile crossing.
The roundabout’s centre is being landscaped with trees and shrubs not only for aesthetic reasons, Edwards said, but it will also eliminate headlight glare from oncoming vehicles and remove the perception of traffic lanes coming straight through.
Ward 7 Coun. Mike Jakubo said this project has long been in the works in co-operation with Glencore, but became a higher priority in the last two years due to significant repairs required along the affected stretch of road. He credits this effort with lessening the number of lane kilometres the city maintains and makes the intersection safer.
"I am also extremely proud of the people in Falconbridge and their Falconbridge citizens committee for all of the input that they have given on this project since 2014," Jakubo said.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
