Main, Mosher Street roundabout to open Sept. 25

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Mount Pleasant will open the city’s first traffic roundabout next Friday after an eight-week construction project that began on Aug. 3.

The roundabout, a one-way circular intersection, is located at Main Street and Mosher Street.

The construction is on schedule and will be opened as planned, said Bill Brickner, an engineering aide and inspector for the city.

Brickner said all the concrete has been laid, the first layer of asphalt has been set and the city is currently working on irrigation and decorative elements of the design, such as landscaping.

“The sidewalk is 100 percent done,” he said.

Other decorative elements such as brick pavers on the sidewalks will also be placed, Brickner said.

He said pedestrian and vehicle traffic will both be safer with a roundabout.

“Roundabouts allow for safer pedestrian crossings,” Brickner said.

It is safer for pedestrians to walk across a roundabout because the traffic is only going one way, he said.

There is also a pedestrian island designed in the middle, so people do not have to cross the whole structure at the same time.

Roundabouts also decrease the speed of traffic, Brickner said.

“It works like a four-way yield. If there is nobody in the circle, you are free to go,” he said.

The structure creates the illusion of less traffic while also slowing the vehicles down, he said.

According to the Michigan Department of Transportation, roundabouts are increasingly being created in towns across Michigan. They also provide a 76 percent decrease in injuries and a 35 percent reduction in all crashes, as well as a more than 90 percent decrease in fatalities, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The roundabout was approved at Mount Pleasant’s City Commission meeting on April 27, as part of a “mini-stimulus” plan to enhance the city as well as provide business for local companies.

Detours have been posted around the city during the construction.