Holmes Beach eyeing 3 possible roundabouts for safer roads

HOLMES BEACH -- Holmes Beach city engineer Lynn Burnett is evaluating three intersections to possibly convert into roundabouts to create safer roads.

Lynn Burnett, also the city engineer for Anna Maria and Bradenton Beach, presented preliminary plans this month to the Island Transportation Planning Organization, an independent group affiliated with all three cities on Anna Maria Island. Burnett is determining the feasibility of converting the following intersections into roundabouts:

Where 81st Street, Palm and Gulf drives merge;

The intersection of Key Royale Drive, Marina Drive and 66th Street; and

The intersection of Gulf and Marina drives.

Burnett said it's mostly about safety at the intersection where 81st Street, Palm and Gulf drives merge near Haley's Motel.

"That roundabout specifically is, I don't think, a congestion issue as much as a safety issue," she said. "People there are trying to turn left or northbound onto where Palm and Gulf come together. ... If they're trying to do that at the northernmost point, they're looking over their shoulder. It's an awkward, dangerous maneuver."

At the intersection of Key Royale and Marina drives and 66th Street, Burnett said it's difficult to turn left onto Marina Drive.

"Again, you're having to look back over your shoulder," she said. "Any time you have a road that intersects like that, it creates a little bit of a dangerous pattern where you're craning back to see. If they don't look back again and, for instance, a bicyclist is coming. ... they might not look back and see that person. You have a lot of pedestrian and bicycle accidents that happen at those types of intersections."

Each roundabout decision, Burnett emphasized, will be determined by safety.

"I think your main one that is congestion management is the one at Gulf and Marina drives," she said. "During peak times, congestion backs traffic up. A roundabout would allow for continuous flow of traffic. ... It would enable all directions of traffic to continue to flow."

Holmes Beach Mayor Bob Johnson, chairman of the Island Transportation Planning Organization, said nothing has been proposed yet to the Holmes Beach Commission regarding the roundabouts. He stressed discussion is needed to determine if roundabouts are feasible.

"We've been trying to look at opportunities for better engineering our traffic issues up here in a couple critical ways, and so traffic circles have been mentioned," he said. "Let's find if they're actually engineering feasible, if there's enough space. ... the size of the various trucks that can make the circle, if you will. We're looking at what it will take to do it. We want to make sure we got something that makes sense. This is not a proposal to go ahead and do things. This is a starting point toward a solution."

Amaris Castillo, law enforcement/island reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7051. Follow her on Twitter@AmarisCastillo.

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 4:46 PM with the headline "Holmes Beach eyeing 3 possible roundabouts for safer roads ."