Every day, residents from three Greenwood subdivisions converge along Yorktown Road and sit at the stop sign, waiting for a break in traffic to turn onto Smith Valley Road.
The city is planning to build a roundabout at the intersection, with the goal of ending that daily routine of waiting and chancing an accident.
Construction of the roundabout will begin in June 2017, with the roundabout likely opening in August of that year, city engineer Mark Richards said. The roundabout will take the same amount of time to construct as the new one at Averitt Road and Main Street, which was completed last summer, Richards said.
In 2011, a traffic study revealed the need for improvements at the intersection of Smith Valley and Yorktown roads, near the Barrington east and west subdivisions, Richards said.
“This is one of the top intersections that needs improvement,” Richards said.
The design and planning of the roundabout will cost about $1.6 million and will be funded though a federal grant. The city of Greenwood will have to pay about $320,000 for engineering costs and the land needed to build the roundabout, Richards said. Construction will cost about $1.35 million, and 80 percent will be funded through a grant. The city will cover about $270,000 of the construction costs, Richards said.
In the next five years, the city of Greenwood is looking at several intersections that could be transformed into roundabouts, including Worthsville and Averitt roads, Meridian and Main streets and south of the current Greenwood Middle School at Smith Valley Road and Meridian Street, officials said.
