Kings Beach to re-do roundabouts
Construction on Highway 28 in Kings Beach will resume Aug. 10 in order to complete the highway work this year.
Work will be focused along the north side of Highway 28 between Secline and Deer streets. One lane of traffic in each direction will be maintained at all times, and a designated parking lane along the south side of the highway will also be made available.
Modifications and further construction work is planned for the roundabouts After careful consideration because Caltrans says they could inhibit safe and efficient snow removal operations. This construction work will occur after-hours in August.
The concrete curbs of the four islands leading into and out of the roundabouts will be flattened. This design change won’t leave enough room for landscaping in the center of the islands, so instead, they will be paved with concrete.
These unanticipated modifications also increase the possibility that some of the neighborhood grid work may not be completed until 2016.
Q & D is also constructing three parking lots this fall as part of the project. One lot will be along the south side of Highway 28 between Coon and Fox streets. The second lot will be just east of the post office on the north side of Salmon Avenue. The third lot will be located at the intersection of Deer Street and Rainbow Avenue directly behind the former Carpenters’ Union Hall. This work is expected to begin in August.
TART staff has been relocating signage and temporary benches to help public transit riders get used to the new bus stop locations. Two permanent bus shelters will be constructed this fall.
Roundabout advocates get what they deserve. People need to stop drooling over pictures of Europe on the travel channel and look outside.
Seems like every time someone brings up roundabouts people start jumping up and down like a bunch of young monkeys with their first handful of S$#@.
How can some green genius design this in Tahoe without taking snow removal or trucks into consideration?
The roundabouts are not the answer to moving traffic more efficiently. Traffic circles in strategic locations where there are few to no pedestrians work quite well. Heavy pedestrian traffic creates a new type of grid lock and prescription for accidents.
Sadly, Kings Beach is now stuck with two such traffic creating circles.
Widening the circles is not the only issue for snow removal- where will the snow be located once pushed through the circle. The reduction in lanes makes the center lane a left hand turn lane- will snow be stored in the center lane?
AMEN!
I have also written about roundabout issues on these pages. Properly designed, maybe they work, but in a jurisdiction where every fiftieth word uttered by TRPA and others is “coverage” they make no sense.
They require more paving than a simple intersection, and are hard fit in the dedicated road right of way because of other facilities installed over the years.
In slick or ice and snow conditions roundabouts also lead to more spin out and loss of control incidents because of the turning forces inherent to a circular path.
CalTrans does not seem to have a good track record in design for secondary mountain roads .
I drive hwy 89 over Luther pass nearly every day, and I will never forget the failed effort to control the highway drainage by using square section asphalt curbing.
What were they thinking?
In the following winter I watched a snowplow, in one of many incidents, take out well over a hundred feet of the curbing. throwing 2 or 3 foot chunks of asphalt curb off the blade and into the forest.
Of course, this problem has now been corrected by the installation of MILES of rolled concrete curbing at considerable extra cost and use of resources.
Remember when some advocated converting the Y to a roundabout. Good heavens.
Kings beach was great until they reduced this from 4 to two lanes. One tourist wants to go 5mph through town – everybody goes 5mph for the entire stretch, backing up traffic either to Nevada, towards Tahoe Vista, or up highway 267. They put planters where parking should be, taking away parking from businesses, and sent cars tearing through the neighborhood trying to avoid the mess of traffic this terrible idea created.
Max +1
They should get rid of all the green engineers and hire people to fill potholes!