SAN DIEGO — CBS 8 went to the intersection of Morely Field Dr. and Florida Dr., where the city's newest quick build roundabout is located. And when I say, ‘quick build,’ I mean, 2 weeks to get to where they are right now, operational.
Phil Rust is from the City of San Diego's Transportation Department and says roundabouts are safer and keep traffic moving.
"With a roundabout all the traffic approaches can actually enter the intersection at the same time as long as the way is clear, and traffic can keep flowing, " said Rust.
The street preparation began a couple of weeks ago, but the installation was much quicker.
"What you see here is about half the total area to be constructed here and this is the results of about 2 nights of the crews working," said Rust.
The idea of a roundabout is to keep traffic moving.
"The curvature on entry deflects and slows traffic coming in,” said Rust. “And so, all traffic should be roughly be flowing at about the same speed.”
So, traffic keeps moving but at a slower speed through the intersection and that translates to safety.
"#1 is about reducing the energy impact in a crash,” said Rust. “In the event a crash does occur, the energy of that crash is exponentially related to the speed."
The question is, what does this traffic efficiency and safety costing? Well, not much according to Anthony Santacroce Public Information Officer for the City of San Diego.
"The City of San Diego is working with the Federal Highway Administration on this project,” said Rust. “The Federal Highway Administration is donating the materials and picking up the cost for them."
And then the city handles the cost of installation.
"They come pre-fab, pre-cut,” said Rust. “The reason they call them quick build is because these materials allow us to install a roundabout in a week, week, and a half.”
The city does expect to build more roundabouts, so if you're a little rusty on your skills are here are the basics.
"Yield to traffic already in the circle and yield to bicyclist and pedestrians," said Rust.
Construction on the roundabout at Morely Field Dr and Florida Dr is expected to be totally complete in about 4 weeks.
WATCH RELATED: Major construction project disrupting neighbors in Little Italy (September 2022)