Downtown Binghamton will have a new look in 2010 when the state-approved roundabout is built on the intersection of Court, Chenango and Exchange streets.

The new construction will be part of the Court Street Gateway Project, a pricey plan which will cost the New York State Department of Transportation up to $5.2 million. The city of Binghamton will have to spend $287,000.

According to the Institute for Highway Safety, a roundabout is a circular island at the center of an intersection without traffic lights. Traffic yields to vehicles circling the island.

The plan is to “beautify and present a positive image Downtown,” said Steven Gayle, the director of Binghamton Metropolitan Transportation Study. “This has always been a difficult intersection.”

According to public records of the Broome County Traffic Safety Board, “reasons cited for choosing the [single lane roundabout] were improving traffic, mobility and creating appealing landscape.” Gayle predicts the makeover of the Downtown area will result in a spillover of economic activity, increasing needed business Downtown.

However, not all Binghamton residents and business owners are in support of the plan. A Binghamton mayoral candidate for 2009, Rich Davis, hosted a conference in opposition to the roundabout spending.

“If you have a large and diverse segment of the Downtown business and residential community opposed to the roundabout, then it defeats the entire purpose of the project,” Davis wrote in a press release for the conference.

Gayle stated that roundabouts are safer than traditional intersections. He notes that at traditional intersections, car accidents are right angle crashes. Roundabout accidents are sideswipes, resulting in less severe injuries.

“Roundabouts are proven to be very effective,” Gayle said. “The roundabout is safer for traffic. Vehicles are forced to slow down to about 15 miles [per hour] at the leg of the roundabout.”

Because vehicles will not sit idly waiting for a light, there will be reduced air pollution from fuel emissions. According to Gayle, most vehicles won’t have to stop at all.

“The construction won’t really disrupt [transportation],” he said. “It will take place piece by piece. The city is required to make a detour plan.”

Apart from the roundabout, the Court Street Gateway Project will include the paving and the rebuilding of roads from Water Street up to Boscov’s and Chapman Street.

“Building the roundabout is a good idea,” said Marisa Caramanico, a sophomore human development major who is moving onto Court Street next semester. “Binghamton has been getting some bad press lately. I just hope the construction isn’t annoying and that [the city] won’t have to pay for it.”

Construction is set to begin early fall 2009 and finish in 2010.