Here's where Renfrew County's first roundabout is planned to go

Drivers in Renfrew may soon be left with their heads spinning as the town has proposed to install the county's first roundabout.

The traffic measure is planned for the O'Brien Road and Wrangler Street intersection, just off Highway 17.

The town has submitted a grant proposal to the province for $3 million in funding. This would assist the town in finishing the reconstruction of O'Brien Road, currently set at $4.9 million.

If approved, the roundabout would be designed in 2023 and installed in 2024.

"This is basically our main connecting link into town off of the highway, and with the Highway 417 expansion coming, there's thousands of vehicles coming through this road every day," said Renfrew's new mayor Tom Sidney.

Sidney tells CTV News that he could see the population of Renfrew double over the next 10 year, with major growth in the town's business district as well, making Renfrew the ideal spot for the county's first roundabout.

"I think Renfrew is on the verge of doing a lot of new things in the county," he says.

New County of Renfrew Warden Peter Emon says traffic flow concerns have never been a problem elsewhere in the county, making the need for roundabouts unnecessary.

"The average traffic count here is about 12,500 (vehicles) a day," Emon says of the O'Brien and Wrangler intersection, which has access directly to a major gas station and shopping centre.

"That's gone up a bit. On the highway it's about 18,000 average traffic count," he adds of the O'Brien and Highway 17 intersection just a few hundred metres away.

Local drivers who use the intersection on a regular basis are split on whether a roundabout is needed, leaving the conversation to go around in circles.

"It could help with the flow of traffic for sure because some days it's quite difficult to go and make a left turn there," says Kim Canning, who says she drives through the intersection seven to eight times a week.

"There's no need for it, I don't think," says local driver Andy Larocque. "The traffic through here is not that heavy. So sometimes you wait a few seconds and then you turn. No problem."

"If you put a light in, you're going to block off access to the highway when people are coming off in both directions," says Emon.

With the first modern traffic measure of its kind being installed in a rural community, some drivers say it will create more chaos before traffic becomes more fluid.

But Sidney believes Renfrew's drivers are already well equipped.

"To be honest, if anybody has been to Renfrew and gone through the intersection that attaches O'Brien Road to our Raglan Street main entrance, it's called ‘confusion corner.’ If you can navigate that you can navigate a roundabout."