BLADENBORO – A highway crossroads in Bladenboro will become a roundabout to help drivers reach their destinations more safely and quickly.
The N.C. Department of Transportation awarded last week a $2 million contract to reconstruct N.C. 131/410 at N.C. 211 into a circular intersection with a center island that will eliminate the existing traffic signal.
Drivers in this rural area sometimes wait for a red light when there is no other traffic. With a roundabout, however, drivers need only slow down, yielding to any traffic already in the circle before entering it. Signs and pavement markings easily guide drivers through the roundabout.
In 2020, NCDOT completed a similar roundabout in Dublin at the junction of N.C. 410 and N.C. 41.
This Bladenboro intersection saw 15 crashes that injured more than a dozen people over a five-year period; some of the collisions occurred by red-light runners. An analysis by NCDOT found a 79% reduction in fatal and serious-injury crashes after roundabouts were installed.
The Mid-Carolina Rural Planning Organization has endorsed this project, and Bladen County officials have asked NCDOT to improve the safety and efficiency of this intersection. The department is able to use money from the federal Carbon Reduction Program, which seeks to decrease engine idling and carbon emissions, toward this project.
BMCO Construction Co. of Lumberton, which received the contract, can begin construction in August. Much of the work will be done while the intersection remains open to traffic, but drivers should slow down and be alert in this vicinity until the project is completed by next summer.
The NCDOT has posted more information on this webpage about roundabouts.