PROVINCETOWN – The Provincetown Select Board rejected preliminary plans for a roundabout on Route 6 at Shank Painter Road in April.
The idea was one piece of a larger state project that will redesign Shank Painter Road and the highway down to Herring Cover, making it more accessible for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Last month, board members changed their mind about the roundabout idea, voting to insert it in the plans to be submitted to the department.
Select Board member John Golden had requested the board reconsider its earlier action and, along with fellow board member Robert Anthony, changed his vote.
The three to two vote on April 22 against the plan was then flipped four to one in favor of the roundabout.
Anthony and Golden previously said if any intersections was to get a roundabout, it should be at Conwell Street and Route 6, not at Shank Painter.
The current plans aim to make Shank Painter the main gateway to downtown.
Shank Painter will have bike lanes on both sides of the road, and Route 6 from the Shank Painter intersection to Herring Cove will drop from its current four lanes to two.
Select Board Member Lise King commented on the safety the roundabout would bring, “For those of us who do walk and bike, it’s a safer option all around.”
Putting a traffic light at the intersection did not make sense to Anthony, “By putting another traffic signal at that intersection where you’re going to have a traffic signal at Conwell then all of a sudden you’re going to have another traffic circle, that’s not making a lot of sense to me.”
The project is being done through the state’s Transportation Improvement program.
Provincetown will have to chip in $628,000 to pay for the design work.
There are still concerns from the committee about safe crossing of Route 6 and how the new path would connect to other paths in the Cape Cod National Seashore.
The project is slated for funding in fiscal 2023 but could be delayed because of other projects in the state pipeline.
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