Once considered untouchable, Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard said he’s reconsidered whether or not the Main Street and Range Line Road intersection could be turned into a roundabout one day.
For years, Brainard has said it was unlikely that a roundabout could be put at that intersection because it is too small and constructing a roundabout there might mean tearing down buildings.
There’s also a proposal from the city, that goes back years, to purchase the parking lot at PNC Bank and build a mixed-use development that would likely go up to the corner.
With more than 100 roundabouts and dozens more on the way, Brainard has consistently said that nearly every intersection could be transformed into a roundabout. But many times he suggested that Main Street and Range Line Road would keep its traffic light, which he said is appropriate since it was one of the first in the country.
“We could literally become a one-stoplight town one day,” Brainard told Current in September 2016.
In the 1920s, Carmel resident Leslie Haines designed an electric stop-and-go traffic signal, one of many versions out there at the time. He offered to place his automatic signal at Main Street and Range Line, which has heavy traffic and the Town Board of the time agreed. It is believed to have been the first traffic signal in the state of Indiana at the time.
On one corner of that intersection, an architectural firm is housed in a historic bank building with its bank vault still in tact. Brainard said this building would be preserved but there isn’t any history to the other three corners, although he didn’t say the City of Carmel would necessarily tear down any buildings.
Brainard said there are no plans to actually build the roundabout at Main Street and Range Line Road, but he said that city planners have looked at the utilities in the area and are “reconsidering” it instead of completely shutting off the possibility.
“It does get backed up at that intersection,” Brainard said. “So it’s something to look at.”
