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POSTED: Monday, May. 04, 2009

First roundabout on Guide Meridian to open Thursday

The one-week countdown has started: On Thursday, May 7, the state Department of Transportation expects to open the first of four planned roundabouts on Guide Meridian.

Traffic has been flowing through the partially built roundabout at Ten Mile Road, but not all lanes have been opened because the roundabout isn't completed.

"It's kind of a good way to get people used to what the roundabout is going to look like," DOT spokeswoman Bronlea Mishler said. "People that are driving us every day are getting a real good look at the birth of a roundabout."

This roundabout will be the 24th installed on a Washington highway, and roughly the 127th in the state. Here are some statistics on the size of the Guide Meridian roundabouts, which also will be built at Pole, Wiser Lake and River roads:

180 feet: total diameter of the roundabout. The one at Cordata Parkway and Kellogg Road is 160 feet, and the one at Cordata Parkway and Westerly Road is 144 feet.

16 feet: width of each lane in the roundabout.

8 feet: width of the truck apron around the middle. Truck tires can ride up on the apron if necessary to get around the roundabout, especially when making left turns or U-turns.

400 feet: length of the splitter islands along Guide Meridian going into and out of the roundabouts. These are designed to slow traffic and prepare vehicles for the roundabout, said DOT assistant project engineer Patrick Fuller.

Semi-trucks will not be able to navigate the roundabout driving next to other vehicles, although they'll be able to navigate it alone, according to the DOT. Signs at all roundabouts will inform drivers that they can't enter next to a semi-truck, Fuller said.

Whatcom Transportation Authority bus drivers will take both lanes coming into a roundabout if they're driving a long, 40-foot bus, but they probably won't need both lanes if they're driving one of the smaller ones.

The roundabouts are designed to handle traffic growth over the next two decades, Fuller said. The Wiser Lake Road roundabout should be finished in late May, the one at Pole Road in mid-July and the one at River Road in December.

The Ten Mile roundabout should be substantially completed next week, except for landscaping in the center, which won't happen until this fall, Fuller said.

Officials tentatively plan to open early on the morning of May 7 and have signs installed and stripes painted before the morning commute, but the schedule depends on the weather, Mishler said.

HOW TO DRIVE ROUNDABOUTS

• Get in the correct lane before entering it and don't change lanes in the roundabout. Use the left lane to go straight, turn left or make a U-turn. Use the right lane to turn right or go straight.

• Don't stop in the roundabout. Traffic entering must yield to traffic already in the roundabout.

• Don't enter it next to a semi-truck or a bus. Drivers of longer buses will take both lanes coming into the roundabout.

• Inside or outside the roundabout, yield to pedestrians trying to cross at the crosswalks on each leg of the roundabout.