New roundabout on Rutland Road

[Urban Cowboy]

Even the most basic city roundabouts are engineered to accommodate a 53 footer.

What do the longer units do?

I have no problem with roundabouts, but I do question their design when in or adjacent to a commercial area.

The ones in Winfield certainly weren't designed with big rigs in mind.

[Bsuds]

My understanding is they are humped in the center so the larger trucks can drive on them.
I have seen them do that.

[Grandan]

Roundabouts are fantastic for moving traffic, there is no doubt about that.

There are some legitimate concerns though

The roundsbouts in this town are not large enough to accommodate effectively, trucks with more than one trailer. You see tracks over all of them simply because they are just that, not large enough.

The fear that I have regarding the proposed solution is when there is a red light at 97, the traffic is going to back all the way to the roundabout, then the people will be stopped and effectively trapped in it until the next green.

Before the westbound traffic on Old Vernon would be backed up past the CanAm building and the Northbound traffic on Rutland Road would be backed up to, and sometimes past Commercial. Now we will be funneling all of the traffic onto Old Vernon and I think it will be to the roundabout.

The new traffic circle on Valley at Longhill has no problem accommodating B trains of lumber, logging trucks and gravel trucks and pups so I see no issue with the Rutland Road - Alcan Rd roundabout.

[RVThereYet]

omntp

Even the most basic city roundabouts are engineered to accommodate a 53 footer.

What do the longer units do?

I have no problem with roundabouts, but I do question their design when in or adjacent to a commercial area.

The ones in Winfield certainly weren't designed with big rigs in mind.

The ones in Winfield, particularly the one right by the golf course (Lodge Road) are poorly designed and very tight depending from where you enter and want to exit.. Larger trucks have to first circle the round-about completely in order to take the first right turn after entering the circle. If you turn off 97 onto Lodge and want to turn right onto Bottom Wood Lake its a tight turn in any vehicle, there is no way any sort of larger commercial truck can make that turn without having to fully circle around first. But in general, I favour round-abouts over stop signs or lights.

[GordonH]

Not sure who in the Ministry of Transport is responsible for designing a roundabout on this extremely busy intersection where big trucks will take up the whole roundabout and everyone who does not know how to use these will create such a bottleneck. They need to get out of the office and watch what happens at that corner in real life. I am predicting disaster!

Is this roundabout on a Provincial highway, if not then you should direct your question to the City of Kelowna.

[LivinginKelowna]

The new traffic circle on Valley at Longhill has no problem accommodating B trains of lumber, logging trucks and gravel trucks and pups so I see no issue with the Rutland Road - Alcan Rd roundabout.

the reason they accommodate is because the truck drivers go over them instead of around them

I like traffic circles, they are far superior to 4 way stops or even lights

I just think that there is going to be a traffic backup by funneling all the vehicles

[northglenmore2012]

From what I understand the roundabout will be finished in a week or so. EAC is double shifting to get it done. Old Vernon road and Rutland road at Acland is going to be closed to traffic, starting tonight.

[Urban Cowboy]

My understanding is they are humped in the center so the larger trucks can drive on them.
I have seen them do that.

Or high center themselves like the one at Burtch and Guisichan a while back.

As I said I have no issue with roundabouts and can see the benefit, but the engineers need to keep all potential traffic using them in mind.

The really big and long rigs just drive over them, which is fine, but if you take note, there are some of these circles where they are landscaping the middle of it, so that sort of puts a kibosh on driving over it.

I think it would be interesting watching a B train navigate that one by Lodge and Bottom Wood Lake Road. That's about the most poorly designed roundabout I've seen yet, given that the idea is to slow down traffic forcing them to merge, but if you are driving south along Bottom Wood Lake Road coming from Woodsdale Road direction, you have practically a straight shot through that roundabout and many drive it as if it was. Point being the design of that one does not meet the objective and I'd dare say even creates a potentially dangerous situation.

[TreeGuy]

All Roundabouts are designed for truck traffic.
I predict that anyone who thinks they aren't designed for trucks doesn't know how to use a Roundabout.
The issues with the traffic/intersection is why a Roundabout is being installed.
Last time I checked there was a truck in Fire truck.
The irritating part is the completion date for the Roundabout was Oct. 31, 2017.

Not true. There is a couple of roundabouts in Glenrosa and a tandem axle plow truck can not go fully around. Trust me I drive one.

[lesliepaul]

All of our Roundabouts are designed to be driven "over" for larger vehicles. Does not stop you and your smaller vehicle from doing the same. If you do go over them just do it when there is no other traffic in the circle that you would no doubt confuse the hell out of.

[Bpeep]

I went past that intersection on the weekend.
It looks like it's going to be a sizeable roundabout.

[BGrigg07]

I used the roundabout at Valley and Cross Rd. many times. I am astonished at how many tire tracks are all over the inner circle, and how close they are to the center of the island.

That's by design...

[vinnied]

From what I understand the roundabout will be finished in a week or so. EAC is double shifting to get it done. Old Vernon road and Rutland road at Acland is going to be closed to traffic, starting tonight.

Funny how these guys can do a roundabout in 96 hours. and the one in glenmore took what, 3 or 4 months. Somebody got ripped off.

[Ultimate_R]

I think an image of the roundabout would be helpful here...



One thing you will notice is that rutland rd traffic coming from the highway won't even use the roundabout.

This will be a drastic improvement to the old intersection as well as the monstrosity that is the current temporary one.

[RVThereYet]

I think an image of the roundabout would be helpful here...



One thing you will notice is that rutland rd traffic coming from the highway won't even use the roundabout.

This will be a drastic improvement to the old intersection as well as the monstrosity that is the current temporary one.

I could swear that some time ago when all this construction was about to get started I saw plans for another round-about on the other side by Adams and Sexsmith?