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A busy crossing in West Volusia will get a major makeover next year.
Volusia County is preparing to construct a roundabout at the intersection of Orange Camp Road and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Beltway.
The decision to replace the signalized intersection with a roundabout comes in conjunction with the widening of Orange Camp Road between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Beltway and Interstate 4.
“It is certainly trending. Right now the trend is toward roundabouts,” County Engineer Tadd Kasbeer said during the county’s Aug. 2 public meeting on the planned $11 million widening of Orange Camp Road.
The traffic circle promotes “efficiency and safety,” he added, resulting in “fewer crashes, fewer injuries.”
In addition, roundabouts enable traffic to keep moving along busy roads, rather than having vehicles backing up and waiting to pass through a bottleneck intersection.
The placement of a roundabout at the junction of two of the county’s arterial roads east of DeLand is “the biggest change” in the design of the widening of Orange Camp Road, Kasbeer noted.
“This is not something we do lightly. If you drive around the county, there aren’t many of them,” he said.
Construction of the roundabout at Martin Luther King Beltway and Orange Camp Road will begin in or about July 2019, Kasbeer noted, and the roundabout may be finished in “12 to 15 months.”
While the construction is underway, Kasbeer said, the intersection “will remain open,” but “temporary traffic controls” will guide drivers through the work zone.
