The roundabout planned for a Rossford intersection next year was approved just weeks ago, but concern popped up recently from the fire department.
Rossford fire Chief Josh Drouard said the department’s largest truck was unable to safely navigate a similar roundabout at Eckel Junction and Carronade Drive in Perrysburg on a recent test run.
City Council was notified Monday during its scheduled meeting.
“We know what works, and we know what’s not going to work,” Mr. Drouard said. “If they don’t put in what works, we’re going to have to take an alternate route to get to the scene of the emergency, and that could cause a delay.”
Lime City Road and Colony Road do not form right angles with State Route 65. The city spent years determining how to address the intersection, which has seen a high number of crashes.
Mayor Neil MacKinnon and City Administrator Mike Scott insisted the roundabout will be able to accommodate fire trucks and school buses. The city’s largest fire truck is 48 feet long.
“I would never allow an improvement to be made that hindered or prevented safety services from getting to where they need to be,” he said. “So when that project starts, not only will our safety services be able to get through it, they’ll be able to get through it in a hurry.”
Tetra Tech project manager Andy Langenderfer said preliminary plans call for the single-lane roundabout to be 120 feet across. He said the roundabout the fire truck struggled with is 100 feet.
“When we design a roundabout, we’ve got software where we can model different vehicles and their paths to make sure it’s appropriately designed,” Mr. Langenderfer said.
The $2.5 million roundabout approved Feb. 13 was about $600,000 cheaper than realigning the intersection.
Mr. Drouard said he’s not a fan of roundabouts, feeling many engineers and architects fail to account for fire trucks in their design plans. He said many blueprints are based on the capability of tractor-trailers, but the comparison isn’t completely fair.
“Those go around without any problem,” Mr. Drouard said. “That’s great, but semi-trucks have that little goose neck. They bend in the middle. We’re 50 feet of straight.”
The chief said the intersection is the main artery to the city’s south side and would be driven frequently by emergency response vehicles.
City Council voted 4-2 last year to borrow up to $3 million to finance various street-improvement projects, which includes the intersection. The city has secured $1.2 million in grants for streets — about $650,000 of which would be allocated for the roundabout and bike path included in the project.
Mr. MacKinnon is confident any alterations to the design will not affect the price or grant money.
Contact Jay Skebba at: jskebba@theblade.com, 419-376-9414, or on Twitter @JaySkebbaBlade.
First Published March 2, 2017, 5:00 a.m.