The whole ethanol industry is a bad thing for all of us.. subsidized from field to pump.. the biggest boondoggle ever foisted on the American public..

If the Milton roundabouts are so perfect, why are they going to be changed?
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http://gazettextra.com/news/2012/nov/28/...

Maynard, I agree. And all the whining over these roundabouts, will not make them go away. I just keep thinking of all the lives lost in the past 25 years I've lived here, at the intersection of H59 and H26. It makes me think a little irritation is worth the lives saved.

gma0f3- Yes Kai has plenty of thick skin to keep up. He is not new. Just isn't here often.

L7: finally a comment I can fully agree on. Not efficient to use corn to make ethanol. With drought this year, will drive food prices even higher. And, IMO, immoral to use food for fuel. There are alternatives such as switchgrass and wood pulp as the base product for ethanol if we are bound to still produce it. In terms of roundabouts ... personally think it all comes down to a question of proper size. I find the one at the north end of Perryville Road in northern Illinois very user friendly, the ones in Mt. Horeb frustrating, and glad they decided not to put the ones in in a town I frequent in northern Wisconsin because would have had to tear out too many businesses to safely make room for the logging trucks. Biggest issue I have seen to date is too many people seem to believe the road belongs to them and do not follow the rules or common courtesies of using either roundabouts or 4-way stop sign intersections. Have to always anticipate the other driving not following the right of way because often they do not. IMO

Once again, the roundabouts have truck aprons in the center that are SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED so that semi-trailer configurations of federally regulated lengths can pass through the intersection.
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The diameter of all three roundabouts appears, from Google Earth, to be 40m. While other roundabout types can be larger, the state standard for a "rural single-lane roundabout" is 40-45m. In other words, these were built to the standard.
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Assuming this was as stated the third roundabout, and this truck was apparently leaving the ethanol plant, it had already negotiated the left turn at M and 59 and was passing through one of the two roundabouts that will eventually form the interchange for the bypass, both considerably easier to navigate as one only need deviate slightly from a straight line. I suspect the issue is not the size of the roundabout, but taking it at too high a rate of speed.

KingRizzo Stated:

hdonlybob, I'm sure you could have come up with something better using your advanced civil engineering background.

Interesting comment...and yes I am a graduate Engineer..which means absolutely nothing...These round a bout's are way too small, which falls into the "Graduate Stupidity" category...
That bypass was built to relieve the truck traffic going thru Milton...yet they put round a bout's in that are no where near big enough for semis...
Do I drive a semi...no I don't, but my camper truck/trailer combination is 61 feet long, and I have used those round a bout's many times and can assure you they are way inadequate for even my set up, much less a full semi...and I don't care what lane you use...
Why don't you talk to some of the snow plow folks about them..or just go look at all the tire tracks that run over the "dedicated" area...these are just plain under designed..no doubt about it...

Sorry woody, I'm not wislady, but thank you for the compliment.

I DID say "I'm not a trucker nor an engineer..."

You're a piece of ummmm... work.

Arent these Tankers baffled on the inside to prevent sloshing ? this Round About Caused a Ethanol spill and didnt save any lives and endangered many ! ....My opinion is we dont need to spend money on roundabouts at least not right now !

"Roundabouts: A solution to a problem nobody had"

Roundabouts nearly solve the problem of fatal accidents at intersections. That something you want to scoff at?

More insane than roundabouts is making ethanol with our tax dollars

Roundabouts: A solution to a problem nobody had

"Arizona? Seriously? Is that the best ya got? NO snow"
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The last I heard, snow was NOT an issue in the ethanol truck crash. heh heh, LOL
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Or maybe, you think Milton roundabouts are different than ALL others world wide. LOL

well grandma of 3(wislady)...when was the last time you drove a large truck? I thought so...

Seems like all the speculation should wait until the police reports whether or not the driver was exceeding the recommended speed for passing through the roundabout. If below, complain about the roundabout design. If above, the driver is at fault.

Woody, Arizona? Seriously? Is that the best ya got? NO snow moron!

"although severity was low."

Is all you need to know.

Woody, though, would rather see people die in order to save half a second on passing through an intersection.

Quote from article: "Ten months of crash data showed increased crash rates (259 percent in the east roundabout and 55 percent in the west roundabout), including five overturned trucks. (See “Truck Overturns” for several possible explanations.) Injuries per year (seven) also doubled, although severity was low. In 2007, the Arizona Department of Transportation directed a study to evaluate the interchange."

A person entering the roundabout at 60mph, (drinking, texting, sleeping) is still going to cause death. You assume people ALWAYS use their heads. The intersection at hwy26 and N has rumble strips, blinking red lights, and stop signs, and people STILL would get killed there. Just because there is a roundabout, it doesn't mean people are paying attention.

I don't mind the large roundabout at menards but the 3 small ones by milton are too small. It wouldn't be the first time roundabouts were made too small and had to be redone.
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http://www.ite.org/traffic/documents/JB0...

thekai
Welcome to the Gazette. I hope you have thick skin.. You'll soon learn who the hostile ones are here.

I appreciate your comment and I agree with you. An accident of any kind in a roundabout, doing 20 miles an hour, will not kill someone, as it will when someone blows a stop sign at 55 mph and is T-boned. Great point!

I've also heard the complaints from truck drivers regarding roundabouts. Perhaps it should have been made larger? I'm not a trucker nor an engineer... That said, roundabouts, once everyone gets used to them, are not that difficult to navigate.

The roundabouts, setup under I94 north of Cottage Grove, run quite smoothly when people are actually DOING the posted speed limit. They reduce congestion and accidents. I too wish they would have put a roundabout in at Hwy N and Hwy 26. Many of those who have been killed at that intersection would be alive today, had traffic been required to SLOW DOWN there.

Once the Hwy 26 bypass corridor is completed, the volume of traffic passing through those roundabouts will greatly increase. Mark my words, the prevention of deaths will be duly noted statistically.

In Europe, roundabouts are the norm. When visiting Denmark in April, I must say... we Americans could learn a thing or two about common courtesy and safe driving. I was discussing roundabouts with the locals there... They do not have nearly as many vehicular deaths. Its not just roundabouts... its patience and respect for others on the highways. My daughter and I felt VERY safe there.

woody,
Ask those same questions but throw a roundabout in there instead of a standard intersection. Do you think there would still be death? There would be a much smaller chance of a car to car collision. Even if the accident still happens, roundabouts can mitigate the damage.

It is my opinion that people should lighten up on wislady. The example here is clear, but there are many times when people go too far. I understand, sometimes some people make themselves easy targets. That doesn't mean they deserve to be ridiculed or picked on.

The point I wanted to make was if the crash was caused by driving while intoxinated, driving while texting, driver fell asleep, or others, should we blame it on the intersection design? Will a roundabout design save everyone? I doubt it...

The large truck drivers that I know that deal with the hwy59 roundabouts ALL say they are too small for big rigs.

The idea of putting a roundabout at that intersection is idiotic at best.

Woody, that was uncalled for.

"Two of my family members were killed at the 26/Cty N intersection"
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Who was at fault?

Maybe wasp meant to post on this article.....before I had even made a comment, I was accused of something I did NOT say. My first comment was made at 5:28 PM.
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wasp2491
Nov 27, 2012 at 4:54 p.m.

"Wislady - I think we got a little insight into your thought process. The roundabouts caused the accident?
Sounds like a school kid saying not my fault, look what you made me do! Typical wing nut talk, always someone Else's fault. I'm sorry but it was the truck drivers fault."

Roundabouts might be annoying, but I do think they are helpful. Two of my family members were killed at the 26/Cty N intersection, maybe a roundabout would have prevented that.
Did we need all the roundabouts on one stretch of road by Milton? That might be debatable.

quote from article: "Ethanol pools or impacts to soils should be identified as quickly as possible to prevent
infiltration to groundwater and runoff to surface water. The high solubility of ethanol can
result in rapid transport in these media. Recovery and excavation have largely been used
to address such situations. Controlled burn has not been used, but could be considered in
some situations;"

All the info you need on ethanol spills...pdf file
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http://www.mass.gov/eopss/docs/dfs/emerg...

"Those round-a-bouts are a nightmare Janesvillian There is ABSOLUTELY no reason for them on 59 for that matter anywhere, a waste of money and time."

Yeah, slowing down to go around a curve is a nightmare. Collisions in standard intersections leaving multiple fatalaties? A walk in the park for carlitosway.

I think a good whoppatooie party would help clean up the pond, has it been denatured yet? Maybe invite a few deer, too.
I prefer to say that ethanol is miscible in water, but who the heck knows what that means???

that truck cleared 2 roundabouts before it tipped over according to the newscast on NBC 15...good thing no one was hurt...roundabouts save lives, money, and resources...get used to them; they're here to stay...

Those round-a-bouts are a nightmare Janesvillian There is ABSOLUTELY no reason for them on 59 for that matter anywhere, a waste of money and time.

cruiser, I'll come ask you about roundabouts again after you lose a loved-one to a t-bone accident in a standard intersection.

Roundabouts save lives. Lots of them.

hdonlybob, the roundabout is designed for tractor-trailer usage. The center island is to be used. As with any curve or intersection, approaching at too high a speed can affect stability.
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Ethanol dissolves in water, so they will likely pump out the contaminated water and that will be the majority of it. It does degrade quickly in the environment -- say, 2-3 years. Overall the size of this spill is pretty small compared with train derailments and other incidents.

All roundabouts are uncalled for. This was just an accident waiting to happen. Lets get engineers out there with more common sense than roundabouts.

hdonlybob, I'm sure you could have come up with something better using your advanced civil engineering background.

Too bad that spill didn't ruin that stupid Round a Bout....Total dumb design. A small trailer can barley get around it, much less a semi...

They will pump it from the retention pond and recover the majority of it. They way they are handling it is the intelligent course of action.

so they're letting it go into the retention pond...and will they remove it from there? This whole area is connected to the groundwater we drink from in the north end of Harmony Township...I hope they get this cleaned up before it poisons our water supply...

Where does it go after the retention pond?