Open house on roundabout set

The Oregon Department of Transportation and the City of Sisters will host an informational open house regarding the proposed roundabout at the intersection of Highway 20 and Barclay Drive on Tuesday, April 14, at 6 p.m. at City Hall.

The design for a roundabout at the west end of Sisters passed a pair of live-fire tests by the trucking industry with flying colors. That moves the long-contemplated project a significant step closer to reality. A link to video from that test is available with the online version of this story at www.nuggetnews.com.

As ODOT discusses the project with representatives of the freight industry, it is seeking the concurrence of the Sisters City Council in accepting the design.

In a letter to the council, project leader Mike Darling said, "As we move toward design acceptance and ask you for concurrence/support of the proposed roundabout design, we want to make sure that the community and public in general is informed about the process which got us to this point, including direction previously set in a public context."

That request led to the April 14 open house. The agenda for the open house is as follows:

•6 p.m. Doors open.

•6:15 p.m. Welcome/introductions.

•6:20 p.m. History and need for the project (Mike Darling, ODOT).

•6:30 p.m. Roundabout purpose; proposed design; results of roundabout testing (Scott Beard, Kittelson & Associates, Inc. and Joel McCarroll, ODOT).

•7 p.m. Question/comment period.

•7:30 p.m. Wrap-up/continued opportunity for questions/discussion (Mike Darling, ODOT).

An extensive public process brought community consensus on the desirability of a roundabout - but that happened several years ago, and for some people in Sisters the idea of a roundabout may be new, alien, and not necessarily welcome.

The City of Sisters identified a roundabout at the intersection of Highway 20 and Barclay Drive as a traffic-control option (a traffic signal being another) in its Transportation System Plan (TSP) adopted in January 2010. The TSP adoption had its own public-input process.

The next year, the engineering firm Kittleson & Associates conducted a feasibility assessment of a roundabout.

Community members participated in a workshop in November 2011 and determined that a roundabout was the preferred alternative.

Getting the roundabout identified in the Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan and getting the freight industry on board took several years. The freight industry wanted to test a design before signing off on a roundabout.

The tests were concluded on February 27 at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds and again at Portland Meadows on March 5.