City of Coronado – Pomona Avenue Roundabout Project

The Pomona Avenue Roundabout project was constructed to transform a wide, four-legged intersection with an nontraditional geometry into a safe, efficient intersection for all users. Prior to construction, the intersection of Pomona Avenue, Seventh Street, and Adella Avenue was a partially controlled intersection with a unique geometry that often lead to driver confusion and safety concerns. Complicating the intersection’s operation were direct residential property access points to 8 properties fronting Pomona Avenue within the intersection. Pomona Avenue accommodates approximately 10,000 vehicles daily with additional traffic through the intersection from side streets. Adjacent to the intersection is Matthewson Park, a community park that generates pedestrian activity and is regularly used for un-programmed recreational activity. Understanding intersection configuration changes would impact adjacent residents, a series of public workshops was held during the design phase to ensure the final design would be supported by the neighborhood. A temporary roundabout was also installed utilizing rubber curbs to evaluate design characteristics, further educate residents, and provide design engineers and residents an opportunity to identify opportunities to improve the final design. The ultimate roundabout design avoided the environmental impacts associated with stop signs and traffic signals and included a fully landscaped, drought tolerant center island. Curb pop-outs adjacent to pedestrian crossings provided additional landscaping opportunities and storm water runoff treatment features while shortening pedestrian crossing distances. Access points to adjacent residential properties were separated from the intersection by a unique access road adjacent to the roundabout itself improving safety for drivers accessing these private properties. To further improve safety for both bicyclists and pedestrians the project included raised crosswalks with solar-powered rectangular rapid-flashing beacons, sharrows, and opportunities for cyclists to exit the roadway prior to the roundabout if desired via driveways and bike ramps. Landscaping was designed to shield adjacent properties from headlight glare and vehicular paths of travel were moved further away from residential properties to reduce noise impacts. Roadway base material was recycled to reduce construction waste, cost, and the traffic impacts related to transporting material. Construction was completed during the summer of 2014 and the City continues to monitor vehicle speeds, traffic counts, and accident records to ensure the traffic calming and safety goals were realized and maintained. The series of public workshops and temporary installations successfully engaged the neighborhood in the design phase of the project to ensure the outcome would be supported and enjoyed, and is a model design process other cities can replicate in their neighborhood traffic calming improvement programs.