Pleasant Hill Road/Olympic Boulevard Roundabout

Pleasant Hill Road/Olympic Boulevard Roundabout

Project Summary
I joined in the latter stages of preliminary engineering (PE) and design for this project: the first traffic roundabout in the City of Lafayette. A recommended outcome from the prior Pleasant Hill Road-Olympic Boulevard Corridor Study [link], this groundbreaking redesign and reconstruction of the Pleasant Hill Road/Olympic Boulevard intersection incorporated multimodal considerations, including active transportation safety, with additional user safety cues, such as retroreflective signage, "soft" bollards at crossing mid-points, pedestrian crossing medians, and maximized sight distance accommodations - particularly for entry and exit points.

Project Summary
I joined in the latter stages of preliminary engineering (PE) and design for this project: the first traffic roundabout in the City of Lafayette. A recommended outcome from the prior Pleasant Hill Road-Olympic Boulevard Corridor Study [link], this groundbreaking redesign and reconstruction of the Pleasant Hill Road/Olympic Boulevard intersection incorporated multimodal considerations, including active transportation safety, with additional user safety cues, such as retroreflective signage, "soft" bollards at crossing mid-points, pedestrian crossing medians, and maximized sight distance accommodations - particularly for entry and exit points.

Role
Deputy planner & project manager (assisting the City Engineer)

Role
Deputy planner & project manager (assisting the City Engineer)

Timeline
2015 - 2018

Timeline
2015 - 2018

Stakeholders
20,000+ Lafayette residents, businesses, & visitors
City of Lafayette City Council
Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
East Bay Municipal Utilities District (EBMUD)

Stakeholders
20,000+ Lafayette residents, businesses, & visitors
City of Lafayette City Council
Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)
East Bay Municipal Utilities District (EBMUD)

Project Value
~$2,000,000 design, right-of-way & construction (2015 estimate)

Project Value
~$2,000,000 design, right-of-way & construction (2015 estimate)

Key Outcomes & Insights

1st modern traffic roundabout in City of Lafayette

1st modern traffic roundabout in City of Lafayette

1st modern traffic roundabout in City of Lafayette

Build post-project performance audits into initial project budgets

Build post-project performance audits into initial project budgets

Build post-project performance audits into initial project budgets

To truly test whether a project can and will meet initial objectives presented to its users, the project sponsor should plan and allocate adequate time and effort to execute a follow-up performance audit. Counter to arguments that this potentially exposes sponsors to legal liability, sufficient pre-planning for this type of audit can (and should) provide detailed documentation regarding the design and construction decisions, as well as reasonable updates to mitigate any and all performance gaps during the subsequent auditing process (i.e., differentiating between definitions of "risk" vs. "defect").

Web Resources

Project Listing at City Website

City of Lafayette

Downtown Specific Plan (v. 2012)

© 2025 James Hinkamp

© 2025 James Hinkamp

© 2025 James Hinkamp