Lambton County Council will again consider the installation of a roundabout at a dangerous St. Clair Township intersection in the spring.
The recommendation for a traffic circle at Petrolia Line and Kimball Road was deferred to the 2024 budget during Wednesday's council meeting.
Chief Executive Officer with BT Engineering Steven Taylor told council it is the best option for the intersection.
"The roundabout provides both traffic operation and safety advantages," said Taylor. "It has a great track record of reducing fatal collisions. The first one we installed in Picton, over the first seven years of its operation didn't have a single reported collision because of low speeds of the vehicles that are going through the roundabout, virtually impossible for anybody to have a high-speed collision."
He said although it comes with a moderately higher construction cost, the overall savings is much more significant.
"A fatality can be more than a million dollars in value," said Taylor. "You've ended up with two in the last five years. So each individual fatality has a cost to the individual, and it also has a cost to society. The future costs of collisions, is more than the capital cost of the project."
Improvements at the intersection of Petrolia Line and Kimball Road have been up for discussion at the county level for several years.
During budget talks in 2021, councillors agreed to put off the then estimated $1.8 million cost for the project to the following year.
The project was deferred again in 2022 to the 2023 budget, at which time an additional $100,000 to conduct a preliminary design study and environmental assessment for traffic lights or a roundabout was approved.
