The full-service consulting firm was selected as the winner of a 2020 GPTQ Preconstruction Design Award for the new Roswell Street roundabout.
The project, which won the “Traffic Safety and/or Intersection Design” category, features an innovative five-legged roundabout design concept at the intersection of Roswell Street, Hawthorn Avenue, and Mathews Street in the City of Smyrna, Ga.
The Georgia Partnership Transportation Quality (GPTQ) Preconstruction Design Awards are presented annually by the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) and the American Council of Engineering Companies of Georgia (ACEC Georgia) to recognize complex, innovative transportation projects across the state of Georgia. The awards were announced and presented by GDOT Commissioner Russell McMurry during the annual Georgia Transportation Summit in Athens on Tuesday.
“We are excited to have this transformative – and now award-winning – project in our Smyrna community,” said City of Smyrna’s Mayor Derek Norton. “We’ve enjoyed a long and successful partnership with Croy on various transportation projects, all of which have helped to bring mobility, safety, and pedestrian-friendly solutions to keep our growing City moving efficiently.”
The new roundabout, which opened to the public in the summer of 2020, replaced an existing six-legged, signalized intersection that had difficult vehicle travel paths, long cycle times, and limited pedestrian accessibility. Croy’s five-legged roundabout design removed the signal, realigned the eastern Hawthorn Avenue leg away from the intersection, and provided enhanced pedestrian features. These improvements have resulted in successfully reducing the traffic back-up during peak hours, decreasing the number of accidents, and improving aesthetics of the intersection.
In addition, truck-specific guide signage encourages truck drivers to make one full circle of the roundabout to easily maneuver the sharpest right turns – therefore better accommodating the larger commercial vehicles that travel the intersection daily. This approach also led to the installation of a roundabout with a much smaller footprint than is typically required of one with as many approaches, which helped to minimalize impacts to local businesses and residents, as well as save on construction costs.
“As a Georgia-based firm, we are proud to be able to help our local communities, like the City of Smyrna, implement innovative, cost-effective designs that improve mobility and keep their residents safe on the roads,” said Gregory D. Teague, Croy’s President. “I am also proud of our entire Croy team – from our transportation, traffic, surveying, right-of-way acquisition, and construction management departments – who all worked to make this project successful.”
On behalf of Croy, the project was spearheaded by Vice President and transportation department head Chris Rideout, PE, along with Senior Project Manager Eric Brisse, PE. Under their leadership, Croy served as the prime engineering firm and led all design, concept development, survey, right-of-way acquisition, and construction oversight tasks. These efforts included performing a complete survey database, traffic analysis, conceptual designs, preliminary engineering, right-of-way plans, utility coordination, and final engineering.
Click here to view the roundabout in action.