It won't be done until 2010 or later, but a planned reconstruction of South Boulevard will include adjusting some intersections for better visibility, complete curb gutter and sidewalks and a roundabout intersection at Parkway, engineers said Wednesday.

Representatives of the city of Baraboo and GRAEF consulting engineers of Milwaukee spread maps of the project out on tables to meet with concerned residents and business owners at the City Services Building.

The project will run from just north of the intersection at Parkway/Highway 123 1.2 miles to the intersection with Highway 12 near Walmart, said Bob Warren, the engineer managing the project for GRAEF.

"Most of the work will be done within the existing right of way, so it will mostly look the same," he said. "There will be two 12-foot driving lanes, two eight-foot parking lanes and sidewalks."

The project also includes straightening some of the intersections, such as at Hitchcock and Waldo streets, Warren said. Both streets approach South Boulevard at an angle, making it hard for drivers to see both ways and make sure they are safe to enter the flow of traffic or cross the roadway.

"Right now they're at an angle," he said. "We bring it in, so now you're perpendicular."

In a change that some residents and city Alderman Mike Cone have opposed, transportation officials plan to make the intersection at Parkway into a roundabout. Now, cars traveling on South Boulevard go through while vehicles on Parkway have a stop sign.

Engineer Kendra Hansen the roundabout will be about 125 feet across with low plantings, shrubs or small trees in the middle and a colored area around the center designed so the rear end of long semi-trailers can roll across it.

The center of the roundabout is not designed for pedestrian traffic, she said. Instead, there will be two lane dividers on South Boulevard and one on Parkway intended to give pedestrians a place to pause while crossing.

Vehicle traffic in the roundabout will all travel in the same direction around the circle, Hansen said.

"A roundabout is an intersection where traffic is not required to stop, but you have to yield," she said. "As traffic approaches the roundabout, it yields to traffic already in the roundabout."

Hansen said she knows drivers will have to learn how to use the roundabout and there may be some confusion before they get used to it.

"I think there's definitely a learning curve," she said. "Once people get past that, the roundabout is proven to be so much safer, so much more efficient (facilitating traffic flow). I think once people give it a try, they may actually prefer the roundabout to a traditional stopped intersection or a signalized intersection."

South Boulevard business owners Steve Pointon of Pointon Heating and Air Conditioning and Mike Hoppe of Glacier Valley Ford expressed concerns about the plan to put sidewalk along all of the south side of the boulevard.

Hoppe said he has enough setback that it will not cause problems for Glacier Valley Ford, but new sidewalk could interfere with the parking for some of the businesses along the street.

Baraboo City Engineer Chuck Bongard said he is a strong advocate of having sidewalks along Baraboo streets.

In designing the reconstruction of the boulevard, they tried to avoid causing too much problems for business owners.

"They're going to have to change their (parking) patterns a little bit in front of some of these buildings," he said. "I have looked at that on all of those site and there's ways to do that without parking over the sidewalk,

"We did move the curb five feet to the north (to create) extra room in there," Bongard said.

If the city can get federal economic stimulus money, the project could be done in 2010, said City Engineer Chuck Bongard. If not, Baraboo will have to wait until Wisconsin transportation officials get money from the federal government and allocate it to South Boulevard.

"It's not going to go this year, that's for certain," he said. "If it has to go into the regular (state) funding cycle, I don't think it's going to happen till 2012."

City Administrator Ed Geick said total cost for the reconstruction will be $4.2 million, with Baraboo playing about 20 percent or $800,000.

Warren said they are accepting comments on the proposed South Boulevard upgrade that are mailed by April 17.

Interested residents may mail comments to Bob Warren, GRAEF, 125 S. 84th St., Suite 401, Milwaukee, WI, 53214-1470; or e-mail them to robert.warren@graef-usa.com