Milton Road roundabout to be completed round about July 2025

Improvements near the problematic intersection will include a dedicated left turn lane onto Cross Road, a pedestrian sidewalk on the west side of Milton Road and pedestrian crosswalks. (City of Rochester graphic)

ROCHESTER - Rochester's next roundabout will be larger than its downtown counterpart, in part due to large trucks that frequent Lamberts Auto & Truck Salvage, it was learned during an April public works committee meeting.
Construction of the roundabout is scheduled to begin later this year and be completed by July 2025, according to engineering firm Hoyle Tanner.
Rochester's downtown roundabout is around 125 feet in diameter, while the one that will be located principally on and around the site of the former Trinkets and Treasurers second hand shop will be about 170 feet, Rochester DPW Chief Peter Nourse told The Rochester Voice last week.
Improvements near the problematic intersection of Milton and Salmon Falls roads and Amarosa Drive will include a dedicated left turn lane onto Cross Road, a pedestrian sidewalk on the west side of Milton Road and pedestrian crosswalks.
Nourse said that Sig Sauer's doubling of its workforce in the next five years is a driving factor in the construction of the roundabout, but that the city has been looking for solutions at the intersection for almost 10 years.
"As far back as 2015 there were concerns with safety, accessibility, access management and efficiency of the corridor from Norway Plains north," Nourse said. "Even before Sig Sauer's move to buy the property, we were having problems with the intersection."
Nourse said earlier field observations showed both northbound and southbound drivers running red lights at the intersection.
He also noted that there had been 40 crashes tween Route 202 and Cross Road between 2018 and 2020 and 10 crashes at the intersection where the new roundabout will be built.
Sig Sauer is shouldering much of the costs, including the outright purchase of the Trinkets and Treasures property which was then deeded over to the city.
Nourse called the roundabout a great option with slower speeds, "less conflict points, and no red-light running."
He said the new configuration would be able to handle increased traffic for 10 years.