This design concept calls for a roundabout at the intersection of Wakarusa Drive and Harvard Road. The new roundabout would be identical to the one completed at the nearby intersection of Wakarusa Drive and Inverness Drive, City Engineer David Cronin said.

Lawrence city commissioners at their work session on Tuesday will review reconstruction plans to add another two-lane roundabout to Wakarusa Drive.

Commissioners will review a summary of next year’s capital improvement project for the intersection of Wakarusa Drive and Harvard Road. The summary includes the design concept for the project, which calls for a roundabout at the Wakarusa-Harvard intersection and about 200 feet of reconstruction to the adjoining street, an area that City Engineer David Cronin said is in poor condition.

“We’re going to try to focus on doing this intersection first before we get farther to the north,” Cronin said. “We’re doing the project primarily because the street is in failing condition, and we’re out there doing annual maintenance work with some of the pavement failures that we’ve had.”

The new Wakarusa-Harvard roundabout will be identical to the one completed at the nearby intersection of Wakarusa Drive and Inverness Drive, Cronin said. That roundabout is currently the city’s biggest as well as its only two-lane roundabout.

The work on the Wakarusa-Harvard intersection is part of the approximately $3 million allotted by the city’s 2017 capital improvement plan to reconstruct Wakarusa Drive from Inverness Drive to Sixth Street. The Kansas Department of Transportation agreed to pay 90 percent of the cost to construct the Wakarusa-Harvard roundabout, up to a maximum of $600,000, according to the summary. The city’s portion of the project will be funded with infrastructure sales tax funds.

Commissioners voted 4-1 to approve the Wakarusa-Inverness roundabout in 2013, at which time city engineers said they would likely recommend a roundabout for the Wakarusa Drive and Harvard Road intersection in future years.

Like its counterpart at the intersection of Wakarusa Drive and Inverness Drive, the Wakarusa-Harvard roundabout will replace four-way stop signs. The roundabout will allow two lanes of traffic — meaning motorists could navigate the roundabout with another vehicle in the adjacent lane. Motorists who are turning east or west onto Harvard would need to take the outermost lane, while those preceding north or south on Wakarusa could take either lane.

The adjoining street reconstruction will be directly south of the Wakarusa-Harvard roundabout and will connect to work previously completed on the roadway, Cronin said. The concept plans call for five 11-foot-wide traffic lanes, which include a center turn lane. The reconstruction will also include 5-foot-wide bike lanes and 6-foot-wide sidewalks on either side of the roadway.

The City Commission work session will also include a review of the plans to rebuild a portion of Kasold Drive that could reduce the number of lanes. One option on the table for that project calls for the installation of a single-lane roundabout at the Harvard-Kasold intersection.

Members of the public will be able to comment on both the Wakarusa and Kasold projects as part of the work session. The next step for the Wakarusa-Harvard roundabout and adjoining roadway will be formal design plans, and Cronin said public input will be taken into account.

“We just wanted to get any comments on the design and then the next step is to proceed to final design plans and figure out the schedule for construction and timing,” Cronin said.

Commissioners meet at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.