Roundabout roundup: Progress report on P.E.I.'s 4 new roundabouts

Summer roadwork is in full swing on P.E.I. with two roundabouts underway in Prince County in Summerside and Grand River as well as one on St. Peters Road in Charlottetown and one in Stratford.

Work on the roundabout at Route 2 and Granville Street in Summersideis more than a month behind its original schedule.

It has been underway for several months and was being paved Thursday night.

The delay was due to work required on a box culvert under Route 2, officials said.

"There's just some minor touch ups with landscaping so it will be finished next week," said Stephen Yeo, chief engineer for the province's Department of Transportation.

"We're lucky there, we don't have a lot of people living there so we're able to do the night paving there."

The roundabout is also slightly over budget at $4.1 million, after the province budgeted $3.8 million.

Newest roundabout in Grand River

Work began Tuesday on the province's latest roundabout project in Grand River in Prince County, north of Wellington.

Yeo said the roundabout is needed because there have been several close calls and drivers failingto obey signs to yield at an intersection there. About 1,300 vehicles use the intersection daily, Yeo said.

"We're anticipating it's going to be a four- to six-week project with the majority of the work being done off the existing highways," Yeo said, so it should be wrapped up in mid-September.

Like most roundabouts in rural areas, he said, the one in Grand Riverhas been designed with farm machinery and vehicles in mind.

In March, the province estimated the project would likely cost $500,000 to $600,000, but Yeo said officials since discovered it would take more, so a contract tender was awarded for just over $700,000. It is being funded jointly through the provincial and federal governments.

Charlottetown, Stratford roundabouts

A roundabout in Charlottetown at the intersection of St. Peters Road, Northridge Parkway and Norwood Road is "going fast and really well," Yeo said. He talked to the contractor Wednesday who told him the project should be wrapped up by Aug. 25.

And one in Stratford at the Mason Road intersection is ongoing, Yeo said.

The province is currently widening the shoulders on the highway there, he said, and as soon as the asphalt is laid down the construction on the roundabout itself will begin.

The project is behind schedule, he said, because a new emergency services building nearby was also under construction this spring and has to be open and operational before the existing fire hall is displaced by the road work.

"That job will be wrapped up in probably mid- to late October," Yeo said, and the budget of $4.5 million is on target.

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