The roundabout includes one lane and is designed to be inclusive to large vehicles, such as farm equipment, that may need to move through the area, according to the Clark County Engineer’s Office.
Clark-Shawnee is the final district in the county to start school this year. The district started later than usual to allow for the construction workers to finish the roundabout. Students in grades 1-12 will begin Thursday, and kindergarten will have a staggered start. Those with last name A-L start Sept. 7, those with last name M-Z and all preschool start Sept. 8, and all kindergarten starts Sept. 9.
“As always, exercise caution when you’re traveling or around a school zone,” Kuhn said.
The intersection closed in May for construction on the roundabout through the end of this month. The engineer’s office and the school district partnered in the project to make sure construction was being done when children were primarily not in the area and when farm equipment would not be harvesting crops, the engineer’s office said.
This project is aimed at improving safety in the area by reducing the number of “conflict points” — where paths of different movement cross — in the area. The fewer points of conflict, the fewer opportunities for cars to come in contact with one another while traveling.
The commissioners voted in favor of proceeding with the roundabout in February 2019 in response to the construction of the new Shawnee Elementary School. Commissioners then said the improvement was needed in anticipation of the intersection becoming increasingly busy due to the ongoing construction project and traffic from Shawnee High School.
The total cost of the project was roughly $1.4 million, County Engineer John Burr said.
More than $1 million of the project was covered through federal funding with the Ohio Department of Transportation.
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