The Vienna Town Council circled back last week to plans that would have added a mini roundabout to Church Street.
The town council ultimately voted on Aug. 25 to cancel the project, noting that the installation of new stop signs seems to have had the desired effect.
The roundabout plans started back in 2015 but gained urgency after a pedestrian was seriously injured in a crash at the intersection on April 24, 2024.
In 2024, ahead of the planned roundabout project, the Town of Vienna installed stop signs at all three sides of the Church Street and East Street NE intersection, where previously only Church Street drivers were required to stop.
The town awarded a design contract to Rummel, Klepper & Kahl, LLP (RKK) for $379,129 in 2024. To date, $100,032 has been spent.
While Town Manager Mercury Payton and Mayor Linda Colbert both supported moving forward with the project, the rest of the town council said that funding could be better spent elsewhere.
Councilmember Roy Baldwin said he believed the roundabout would improve safety, but the benefits wouldn’t be significant enough compared to the stop signs to justify moving forward with the project.
“If we decided not to go forward with the traffic circle, your estimate was that we could save approximately $140,000 in town funds,” said Baldwin. “As I listen to my colleagues on this subject, I want to assure you my thinking is based upon: is it worth the extra $140,000 or slightly more to get that extra benefit or are we doing well enough by the all-way stop signs and some other low-maintenance or low-cost improvements to that intersection without having to go through the expense and inconvenience of a traffic circles?”
Like Baldwin, Councilmember Chuck Anderson said he supported traffic circles, but echoed concerns that Vienna would not get sufficient return for its investment.
“Even though I’m a big fan of traffic circles, I don’t think we’d get sufficient incremental safety factor in this factor that would justify the increased cost,” Anderson said. “And we’re talking about the design phase, not even talking about the build phase yet.”
Anderson said one bad accident at the site also didn’t reflect recurring safety issues.
“If we had a repeated problem with pedestrian safety at this intersection, I might consider it differently,” Anderson said, “but even before stop signs, we had one incident in memory that I’m aware of that was serious. Since the stop signs, we’ve had none.”
Anderson said the money currently allocated to design the roundabout and future funding for construction could be better used on other pedestrian and traffic safety enhancements.
Colbert, the sole vote in favor of continuing the project, argued that the severity of the crash was enough to justify taking a more intense step.
“There was a near-fatal accident there; she was seriously injured,” Colbert said. “That sealed it for me that we should go with the roundabout. You all may be right on this, but I believe in the roundabout so much that I think that will be my vote.”
Vienna’s lone existing roundabout was installed at Park Street and Locust Street SE in 2016. Police Chief Jim Morris told the town council in May 2024 that, after some initial hiccups, the configuration has eased congestion as intended, and there had been no crashes involving pedestrians at that intersection in at least three years.
