Jackrabbit Road Plan Includes Roundabouts

Business and land owners are concerned a new road project planned for Jackrabbit Lane could mess with their livelihood.The renovation will begin south of Four Corners and extend north of Hulbert Road, south of Belgrade. The Montana Department of Transportation held a public meeting to discuss possible changes to the expanding road.Officials laid out two main designs for reconstructing 3.8 miles of the road.One design includes constructing a median in between four lanes.The other design is a five lane road similar to Huffine Lane, which includes a painted left-hand turn lane in the middle of the road.Transportation officials say the median would help reduce car conflicts, increasing safety, but it would reduce access to businesses.Business and land owners are concerned this could keep customers away and greatly affect their business.Many of them seemed to favor the plan similar to Huffine Lane which would provide more access.Officials also discussed new designs for the Four Corners intersection at Huffine Lane and Jackrabbit Lane, like adding a dual left-hand turn lane.Other ideas included adding round-a-bouts to some intersections down Jackrabbit to bring speeds down and help large vehicles that can't make u-turns access businesses.

Roundabouts...really, I think that for bicycles and pedestrians it will be a nightmare trying to cross Jackrabbit. At least with a light, you can get across.