Commission To Consider Roundabouts At Malcom Bridge Middle School

Oconee County will go forward with construction of three roundabouts on Malcom Bridge Road, two at entrances to Malcom Bridge Middle School, if the Board of Commissioners next month approves plans put forward at the Commission meeting Tuesday night.

Construction of two of those roundabouts–at Mars Hill Road and Malcom Bridge Road and at the bus entrances to Malcom Bridge Middle School–could begin this summer.

The third roundabout–at the parent entrance to Malcom Bridge Middle School–would not be built until next summer.

Board of Commissioners Chair John Daniell told his fellow commissioners that the county can build the two roundabouts at the school entrances without the rights of way denied the county by the Board of Education at its meeting last week.

Daniell said the county proposed the roundabouts as a way to address traffic problems already existing on Malcom Bridge Road at the Middle School and increased traffic expected from a shopping center approved back in 2004 and now under development on land opposite the school.

Daniell also said a primary concern was the safety of Sheriff ‘s Office deputies who now stand in the middle of the roadway to direct traffic at the school entrances.

For more on this story, with a video of the Board of Commissioners meeting, please go to Oconee County Observations.