Plans to change the intersection at Seckman, Old Lemay Ferry and Lions Den roads in Imperial from a four-way stop to a roundabout have drawn a predictable reaction.
“I’ve talked with a lot of different agencies who have installed roundabouts, and they all say that for some members of the public, change is sometimes hard to take,” said Jefferson County Public Works Director Jason Jonas. “At first, there are a number of questions and concerns, and general uneasiness with change.
“But once the public sees the result – if it’s done right, and this one will be done right – they are usually impressed,” Jonas said.
The county’s Public Works Department has worked for years on a plan to deal with an increase in traffic along Seckman Road, particularly in front of the Seckman Schools campus and at the intersection of Old Lemay Ferry and Lions Den Road.
Jonas said that going back to 2016, his department has considered roundabouts at the entrances of Seckman High and the shared entrance of Seckman Elementary and Seckman Middle schools, and dedicated right-turn lanes from westbound Seckman onto northbound Old Lemay Ferry and from northbound Old Lemay Ferry onto eastbound Seckman, but those plans have changed after a series of public hearings held in 2018 and earlier this year.
“What we’ve decided now is that we’re better off with dedicated traffic signals in front of the school entrances and a roundabout with the bypass lanes at Seckman, Old Lemay Ferry and Lions Den,” he said.
Jonas said a comprehensive traffic study completed in June 2018 concluded that a roundabout at that intersection, which has a traffic flow of about 5,000 vehicles a day, would be the most efficient way to address potential growth for the next 20 years.
However, that study doesn’t impress Gene Barbagallo, who lives off Lions Den Road, about a mile away from the intersection.
He said he has several qualms about the proposed roundabout, especially its proximity to the Seckman campus.
“The big thing I have about this is pedestrians will have to go across seven traffic lanes (including lanes to get in and out of the roundabout) to cross it,” said Barbagallo, who has spoken against the plans at recent Jefferson County Council meetings. “That’s a lot of traffic to have to negotiate. And there is pedestrian traffic in this neighborhood – there are walkers, joggers, bicyclists, people in wheelchairs – and they’re going to have to try to cross all this traffic in a roundabout.
“I just don’t believe that we want this thing within 300 feet of a major school campus.” Barbagallo said. “You’ll have kids walking home, cross country teams running and getting caught in the middle of a roundabout with nothing other than maybe a ‘watch for pedestrians’ sign. It’s ludicrous.”
However, Jonas said the roundabout has been designed with pedestrian traffic in mind.
“There is a lot of pedestrian traffic in the area,” he said. “And right now, there are no sidewalks on Seckman Road, so walkers and bikers have to walk on the road or on the shoulders. This project is designed to have 5-foot-wide sidewalks, a 7-foot marked bicycle lane and crosswalks leading people from one side to the other, with a safety island in the middle to allow a safe place to stop if you need to stop for oncoming traffic. You’ll only have to cross two lanes, and the island will be there if you have to stop.
“There also will be decorative streetlights at the intersection, providing light around the clock. Right now, the only lights are from a gas station (a Phillips 66 Express Mart on the northeast corner of Seckman Road and Old Lemay Ferry). Once this is built, pedestrians will be able to see vehicles and vehicles will be able to see pedestrians, which is not the case now.”
Jonas said a new crosswalk on Lions Den Road a block west of the intersection, at Bellerieve Lane at the entrance of the Seckman Crossing subdivision, also will provide more protection for pedestrians.
“Right now, the school buses stop there, and other than the arm of the school bus, there is nothing there for the students getting on and off the buses,” he said.
The crosswalks, Jonas said, will guide pedestrians through the roundabout logically.
“Research shows when you provide a dedicated pedestrian walkway, the majority will use it correctly,” he said.
Barbagallo said the roundabout has not been designed correctly.
“I talked to someone who dispatches trucks who told me that a 53-foot truck with a trailer could in no way negotiate this roundabout as it is designed,” he said. “And no matter what kind of curbing they put on it, trucks will tear it up. Look at the roundabout in Barnhart (on the I-55 outer road).”
Jonas said he drives the Metropolitan Avenue roundabout frequently, and said it holds up to truck traffic just fine, as does another roundabout in the county, on Astra Way Drive and Missouri State Road in Arnold.
“When you’re talking about the size of a roundabout, you’re talking about the radius,” Jonas said. “A larger radius makes it easier to turn. The roundabout we’re designing has a radius that’s 5 foot more than the other two roundabouts. And the curbing will be sufficient to hold up to trucks.”
The county has a third roundabout, at McNutt Street west of I-55 in Herculaneum, that Jonas said has a larger radius.
Barbagallo said he believes the county is forced to build an inadequate, too-small roundabout because of development at all four corners of the intersection.
“This roundabout is too small to accomplish what they think it’s going to do, and besides, with traffic lights further up Seckman (in front of the schools), traffic is going to back up anyway,” he said.
Jonas said the two traffic lights on the school campus will detect traffic needing to leave the campus or the Arrow Ridge and Remington Place subdivisions across Seckman Road from the campus, and otherwise the lights will be left green to allow through traffic on Seckman Road.
He also said there is plenty of land available to build a suitable roundabout.
“We only need about a fifth of an acre to do it as we want to do it, and we’re in that phase (of negotiating land acquisition and right-of-way access) now,” Jonas said. “We have what we need to accomplish what we need to accomplish.”
Barbagallo said he’d prefer to see traffic signals at Seckman, Old Lemay Ferry and Lions Den rather than a roundabout.
“They can link up and talk to the traffic lights in front of the schools, and that will have traffic moving through the area better than what they’re planning,” he said.
Jonas said the comprehensive traffic study concludes otherwise, which is why the roundabout is the best solution.
“We have several goals with this project,” he said. “The first is to improve the traffic flow in front of the schools. We believe that the traffic signals will do that. Another is to improve the intersection for pedestrian use by all types of users, including walkers, joggers and bikers. This design definitely accomplishes that. And we want to build an intersection that will accommodate the projected growth in the area, and there are large tracts farther down Lions Den that will likely be developed over the next few years. The traffic study used modeling to analyze a number of different options, and the conclusion was that a roundabout was the best way to handle the expected growth.”
Jonas said $1.48 million was budgeted in the current East-West Gateway Council of Government’s current Transportation Improvement Plan for the two projects – the roundabout at Seckman, Old Lemay Ferry and Lions Den and the improvements in front of the Seckman schools – and he estimated that with the lights instead of the roundabout at the entrance to the schools, the project will cost slightly less than that.
Of that amount, 20 percent will be paid for through the county’s share of the countywide 1/2-cent sales tax for road and bridge improvements.
Jonas said he anticipated that construction may start next year.
He said the intersection likely would not ever be closed completely during construction, although traffic in one direction or the other might be diverted for short periods of time.
“We also plan to do low-impact construction, such as the traffic signals, sidewalks and lights, during times that school is in session, with the major work at the intersection to construct the roundabout during the summer when school is not in session,” Jonas said.