Small Footprint, Big Impact - Compact and Mini Roundabouts in Newark, Ohio

Nicholas Shultz

Transportation Engineer
City of Newark Ohio

Nicholas Shultz is the Transportation Engineer for the City of Newark, Ohio, and is involved in all aspects of the transportation infrastructure, which consists of: 485 lane miles, 95 bridges, 72 traffic signals (and decreasing), and 6 roundabouts (and increasing). After graduating from THE Ohio State University in 2004, Nick worked as a traffic engineering consultant specializing in roundabouts and active transportation.

Aaron Call, principal and partner with the community advancement firm OHM Advisors, has dedicated his professional career to improving mobility and safety through roadway, bikeway, and pedestrian facilities design with a focus on roundabout design. Aaron has been involved in the design of over 50 roundabout projects, most notably the first urban mini roundabouts to be constructed in Ohio. Aaron shares his expertise and passion for roundabouts through presenting at local and national conferences.

Sean Oatman is a project manager at OHM Advisors in Columbus, Ohio and specializes in roadway complete street design. Sean has been involved in over 15 roundabout projects and leads OHM’s Ohio transportation team in horizontal and vertical geometric design of complex roundabouts. He has experience with high-speed rural roundabouts, mini-urban roundabouts, and unique roundabout geometrics including turbo roundabouts and dog-bone shaped roundabouts.

The first part of this session will focus on the recently completed $25 million renovation of the Central Business District surrounding the historic courthouse square in the City of Newark, Ohio. The City initially embarked on this project with the goal of separating its aging combined sewer system, but once preliminary engineering revealed the installation of the new sewer lines would result in significant impacts to the existing infrastructure, the City decided to seize the opportunity to reconstruct all facilities within the existing right of way. This allowed the City to rethink the autocentric transportation network surrounding the courthouse square to provide a more welcoming and accessible environment by implementing road diets and installing four urban mini-roundabouts, the first of their kind in Ohio. The second part of this session will discuss the City’s changing perspective and implementation of other compact roundabouts in other parts of Newark as a result of this project’s success. Particularly, the installment of the urban mini-roundabouts in the Central Business District has confirmed that smaller, compact roundabouts can have significant safety impacts without compromising efficiency or restricting truck traffic, and can often be implemented within tight confines and at similar or less cost than other alternatives. Other compact roundabouts installed or under design within the City will be discussed, including another first of its kind - a 5-leg, mini-roundabout.

The goal of this project is to present past successes the City of Newark, Ohio, has had with mini/compact roundabouts and encourage others to consider their implementation with already programmed projects or as standalone projects. This presentation will touch on local findings; including, safety, efficiency, active transportation use, and truck traffic. Cost considerations will be presented that indicate mini/compact roundabouts can be implemented at equivalent, or less cost than other treatments. This presentation will also touch on the economic impact that can be realized with right-sizing transportation infrastructure. For this reason, and those noted above, this presentation is targeted to anyone involved in funding, design, administration, and operation of transportation infrastructure; including, but not limited to: Directors, Commissioners, Administrators, Planners, and Engineers.

This presentation is relevant to the mini/compact roundabout subject because we will be discussing 4 mini roundabouts (80’ ICD) implemented in a downtown core, a compact roundabout (110’ ICD) that accommodates large trucks, and a future 5-leg mini roundabout that is currently under design. Our goal is to get people to “think outside of the circle” and utilize other cost saving designs so that roundabouts can be installed in lieu of traffic signals to provide a much safer and more efficient transportation network for all modes of travel.