Chatham-Kent council has given its okay to the construction of a new roundabout at a busy intersection between Tilbury and Chatham.
Council approved the $2.1 million project - which will be built at the intersection of Queen's Line and Merlin Road - on Monday in a 13-3 vote.
Chatham-Kent Engineering Technologist Mark Ceppi addressed the concerns about the roundabout accommodating large trucks and farm equipment.
"We made sure that the consultant considered large vehicles like combine harvester and also longer vehicles that could be coming off the Highway 401," said Ceppi. "The design being proposed does consider those factors, such as the width of a combine or the length of a dual transport rig."
Ceppi also addressed concerns about roundabouts being unsafe and not enough motorists being familiar with how to use them.
"One of the major benefits of the roundabout is that it eliminates crossing type collisions," said Ceppi. "The way it is designed is that each approach separates traffic. It eliminates a lot of the conflict points that you would see, at the current intersection or a traffic signal intersection."
During the discussion, Councillor Melissa Harrigan made it a point to acknowledge the different opinions regarding the roundabout.
"I really do believe in this report and we need to trust the experts around safety and what's best for that intersection," said Harrigan.
While most of the council was in support of the roundabout, Ward 1 Councillor Mark Authier was not. Despite its approval, he said he is still afraid of large farm equipment going through it.
"The majority of the people in the area do not want it," said Authier. "We seemed to not care about that."
The next steps in the process include contacting the adjacent landowners to negotiate the land purchase. After that, the next step would be to issue a request for a proposal to obtain an engineering consultant to provide detailed design and contract administration services for the project.
Once the design is finalized, a contract tender will be issued to obtain a contractor to build the new roundabout.
