(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa D-O-T held a public meeting Tuesday on plans to build a roundabout at a major intersection in Tama County. There are 61-hundred vehicles driving through the intersection of Highway 63 and Business Route 30 in Toledo every day. Josh Roberts told K-C-R-G T-V he works second shift and using the intersection daily. “When I leave, it’s pretty congested but when I come back, it’s pretty dead,” Roberts says Roberts’s biggest concern is how large farm equipment would be able to make it through the roundabout, and says he doesn’t think it will help.

Jim Kupka of Clutier told K-C-R-G T-V he drives through the intersection five times a week, sometimes hauling cattle.“I don’t see how we’re going to gain anything by putting your merry-go-round down there on Highway 30 and 63,” Kupka says.

Proposed roundabout in Tama County

D-O-T Assistant District 1 Engineer Jeremey Vortherms says the intersection isn’t considered unsafe. There have been 18 accidents in the last ten years. He said this two million dollar project is a way to get rid of outdated equipment while also making the intersection safer. “The roundabout kind of gives us the benefit of safety, continuous movement, it’s more flexible,” Vortherms says. Vortherms says the D-O-T plans to start the construction project next spring and complete it next fall.

Kupka doesn’t think it should be built. “I think it’s a waste of money and a waste of time,” Kupka says. The D-O-T said roundabouts make up about one out of every one thousand intersections in Iowa. Right now, the state said there are 150 roundabouts across Iowa, with ten to 15 new ones constructed each year.