Residents weighed in on a new design for the intersection of East Benders Landing Boulevard and Rayford Road at a town hall meeting April 17 in an effort to address traffic flow and safety concerns in Benders Landing Estates.

What residents need to know

As part of a town hall meeting to remove the Townsen Boulevard extension project from Montgomery County's $480 million bond issue on the ballot May 3, Precinct 3 Commissioner Ritch Wheeler requested resident input on another local project being fully funded by the county at East Benders Landing Boulevard and Rayford Road.

East Benders Landing Boulevard currently has two lanes ending at the intersection with Rayford Road and continuing as a one-lane road. Residents and Wheeler said the merge at the intersection has caused daily traffic issues.

Wheeler presented three options to residents, including:

• Keep the intersection unchanged
• Widen the north side of East Benders Landing to move the merge point after the intersection
• Make a dedicated right-hand turn lane onto Rayford Road allowing the left lane to travel straight through the intersection

Following several rounds of voting and questions, residents voted to have the merge point moved after the intersection, which will require the county to lay some additional asphalt and potentially cause the loss of several trees in the median.

Quote of note

"What this does is gives that intersection more capacity, so the people coming from the south [of Benders Landing Boulevard] aren't waiting at the stop sign," Wheeler said. "That intersection should have never been built that way. What it was actually built for was a dedicated left-hand turn lane. That's why that left-hand [lane] is offset."

What's next?

According to an update from the commissioner's office, work on the intersection is tentatively set to begin in the summer and will include the asphalt placement and restriping of the roadway.