Is it too early to pause and give thanks to Warren council members who stood firm and signed on with PennDOT’s roundabout concept?

The Jan. 21, 2019, council meeting heard concerns such as the heavy truck traffic, “over weighted” going out, having difficulty negotiating the roundabout and fear of “tipping over” when using the berm; also, pedestrian traffic safety concerns were presented.

Council’s Feb. 11, 2019, special meeting featured PennDOT representatives address the January concerns.

The roundabout construction is well underway. Phase three started this week and the final Phase is scheduled for August: final paving, street lighting and landscaping.

Use thereafter will decide whether the Jan. 11 concerns will be realized or not.

To local, non-tanker truck drivers, the residents of the village of North Warren have had their Beckett Park roundabout for some time and appear pleased with it though replacing the “stop” signs with “yield” signs” would be an improvement. But entering right and steering left until exiting works very well, thank you.

The Warren roundabout is another example of our federal and state gasoline tax monies being used in an attempt to improve our local infrastructure.

The Commonwealth’s civil engineers claim they have designed a safe, attractive, traffic flow improvement that will modernize the important Market Street-Pennsylvania Avenue intersection.

The roundabout and Routes 6 and 62 are within PennDOT’s jurisdiction. However, they prefer having local approval, which council narrowly provided.

No one can deny the roundabout has changed that part of our downtown, probably more than one realizes. This flies in the face of naysayers’ “if it ain’t broken” kind of thinking.

Roundabouts work, have worked around the world for decades, centuries. Here’s hoping our tanker trucks and our roundabout will be compatible.

Don Scott is a North Warren resident.