If you’ve driven through Eight Corners in Brookfield this week, you may have noticed new yellow bollards directing the flow of traffic.
Brookfield Public Works Director Vincent Smith said 32 traffic bollards, also called delineators, were installed Monday, May 20, at the roundabout, four at each intersection. The village’s goal is to improve safety after three motorists since December have struck the memorial fountain, which it rededicated to veterans last summer.
“We were assessing the condition of that intersection and the hazards that lied within. We had discussions with the crossing guards, and they expressed concerns with commuters, especially in that school area with the children, with individuals driving erratically,” Smith said in a phone call Friday.
Smith said he, alongside Village Manager Timothy Wiberg and Police Chief Michael Kuruvilla, assessed the area near Eight Corners and settled on the traffic bollards as an immediate way forward.
“We wanted to try and create a low-cost, engineered solution that would improve the safety of that circle. It’s a very challenging area without committing initially to some very large infrastructure improvements,” Smith said. “We thought that if we implemented some engineered solutions in there that were at a reasonable cost … we could create the outcome or the desire we wanted to improve the traffic flow and the safety within that circle.”
While Brookfield paid for the traffic bollards itself, as opposed to receiving outside funding, “It was relatively a low impact financially to us,” Smith said. “I believe it was under $2,500 to purchase these.”
Some residents may worry about the possibility of the bollards being bent or broken by drivers using the roundabout, but Smith said Brookfield had purchased enough of them to have backups.
“They do get knocked down. We do have extras; we’ll replace those as needed,” he said. “With the high flow of traffic and managing channeling that traffic over, this is a maintenance that would typically take place at night, just due to the volume of traffic and trying to control the work environment.”
He said one goal of the traffic bollards was to “create a pathway” for motorists entering the roundabout.
“As they’re approaching that intersection, it guides them in the direction of the circle,” he said. “People had a tendency to drive the wrong way in the circle, so this will help to control the flow of that traffic.”
While the bollards have only been installed since the start of the week, Smith said the village has already noticed them having a positive effect.
“We have been monitoring them as we’re out on site, and we have noticed an improvement in the conditions out there. People are more cautious. They are slowing down, and they’re more mindful as to the flow of traffic and the direction that they’re taking. It’s definitely pushing traffic into the right direction,” he said. “We feel that, as of right now — it’s only been a week — that this low-cost, engineered solution has improved the traffic conditions at the circle.”
