Roundabouts on Columbia Street

YOU ASKED: Would the City consider changing the junctions all the way up Columbia Street over the next five years to more-efficient roundabouts?

— Ralph

OUR ANSWER: Baby steps. That’s what Kamloops is taking when it comes to converting intersections to roundabouts, said Pierre Pouliotte, the City’s senior traffic technician.

“We’re really in the infant stages, if you will, of using roundabouts,” said Pouliotte.

As noted in an earlier Readers’ Reporter posting (Roundabouts At Intersections, Jan. 12, 2010), the City is considering converting two more intersections to roundabouts — the corner of Dallas Drive and Todd Road and the corner of Highland Road and Valleyview Drive.

Those locations make good candidates for single-lane roundabouts, like the one installed recently at Pacific Way and Aberdeen Drive.

Installing roundabouts on a major arterial road such as Columbia Street would require multi-lane roundabouts, which use a lot more area.

“Of course, when you start planning for something like that, then you need a lot of real estate,” said Pouliotte.

“And along those existing corridors, we just don’t have the existing road right of way. So, major land acquisition would have to be done.”

But that’s not so say Kamloops won’t see multi-lane roundabouts some day.

Its planners could easily sketch roundabouts into the plans of future corridors.

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