New roundabout for West Prince nearly complete

Officials with the province say a new roundabout in West Prince is just about complete.

The project at the intersection of Old Grand River Road and Route 131, near Richmond, P.E.I. was supposed to get started in the summer, and be complete by the beginning of October.

But, Stephen Yeo, the province's chief engineer with the Department of Transportation, says work was held up by busy contractors.

"With the amount of work the contractors had, it was delayed," Yeo said.

"But it should be wrapped up by the end of this week."

He said the area was chosen for a roundabout because of several severe accidents and head-on collisions, in addition to many near-misses at that intersection.

"When one highway meets another highway, you like to be between 70 and 90 degrees,come out to a T-intersection," he said.

"In this case there it was about a 20-degree angle. And what it allowed is drivers to come out from the Tyne Valley area at a high speed, that were supposed to yield to traffic and that always wasn't the case."

He said a minor accident occurred at the intersection this past weekend and is reminding motorists that it's the law to reduce your speed while in a construction zone. He said for the most part, rural roundabout projects like this have done a lot to make Island roads safer.

"We've had good success," said Yeo.

"There may be a fender benders, rear-end accidents, or side-glancing blows, but you don't get the high speed T-bone accidents or the head-on collisions at these roundabouts. We don't see very many accidents that cause injury at all."

The initial budget for the project was between $500,000 and$600,000,but Yeo said that the intersection required additional realigning, which brought the total to $705,000. The cost is being shared equally between the provincial and federal governments.

More P.E.I. news