A new $4.5 million roundabout has been completed at the intersection of U.S. 20A and State Route 64 on Swanton’s western edge, near the Fulton and Lucas county line, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.
The project, listed by ODOT as FUL/LUC-20A/64 (PID 110207), converted the former two-way stop-controlled intersection into a modern roundabout. ODOT District 2 administered the construction, and the work included excavation, new pavement and drainage on both corridors, according to ODOT’s project record, which puts the cost at $4.5 million.
The junction has a complicated traffic history. U.S. 20A is the older U.S. 20 alignment running through Maumee, Monclova Township and Swanton, while State Route 64 links Metamora and Swanton with Waterville. The two intersect once at the Swanton roundabout and again about 12 miles east at Waterville, where they run together across the Maumee River, according to ODOT.
ODOT’s design replaced the stop-controlled crossing with a circular intersection intended to keep traffic moving while reducing the sharp-angle crashes that are most common at rural two-way stops. Roundabouts of this kind slow approaching traffic by design and remove the left-turn conflict points of a conventional intersection.
The completed project is part of a sustained upgrade of the airport corridor on Toledo’s western flank. A nearby project on State Route 2, the Airport Highway corridor west of Toledo Express Airport, is recorded in ODOT’s construction program covering this same general area.
The intersection sits southwest of Toledo Express Airport, on a route used by commuters traveling between Swanton, Whitehouse and the airport area and by farm and freight traffic crossing northern Fulton and western Lucas counties. Both corridors are two-lane rural highways for most of their length, which made the old stop-controlled crossing a bottleneck as traffic grew.
Drivers using the new roundabout should yield to traffic already circulating, enter when there is a safe gap and keep a steady speed through the circle, standard practice ODOT advises at every new roundabout it opens. No further closures for the project were listed by ODOT.
Photo: Elevatorrailfan, CC BY-SA