Final Delmar Roundabout Design to Be More Symmetrical, Fit Historic Plaza

Even though the University City City Council approved making the Delmar roundabout permanent, the council still held a public hearing to hear from interested residents Monday. 

The Council approved measures Aug. 22 to make the trial traffic design permanent. The 6-0 vote approved a retrofitted design that will better fit with University City's historic civic plaza, the taking of a piece of Delmar Blvd. from St. Louis County to U City control and $50,000 in funding to get the process started.

The $1.2 million project is being paid for with a federal grant. 

Rich Wilson, Director of Public Works and Parks, told Patch the new historic design will only move the roundabout about two feet to the south to make it more symmetrical with the lions head gates and the center line of Delmar Blvd. 

He told the council Monday the new layout would be a better fit with E.G. Lewis' original vision for the historic civic plaza. 

Elsie Glickert told the council she saw no need for the roundabout. 

"The employees of city hall alone have made left turns thousands of times without incident," she said. "There is only one pedestrian fatality that I can think of in the last 20 years."

Tom Sullivan also spoke, saying the roundabout added stopping and starting where there was no need.

The temporary design consists of about 1,400 feet of asphalt curbing along the edges of Trinity and Delmar and the edges of splitter islands. 

Concrete planters and reflective safety barrels are in the inner circle of the roundabout. New pavement markings and signs also were be added to guide pedestrian and vehicle traffic. 

Wilson said construction on the permanent roundabout likely won't take place until 2014. The city wants to keep the mock roundabout in place until new construction begins. 

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