Installing what’s called a “barbell roundabout” is among the options being considered by Strand Associates, the design firm hired by the Bowling Green-Warren County Metropolitan Planning Organization to study ways to improve the Fairview Avenue corridor.

At a Monday meeting, MPO Coordinator Karissa Lemon said Strand will begin the traffic-count phase of its study next week and will be investigating the feasibility of three projects that would address the increased traffic along the road.

The roundabout solution involves installing roundabouts at the Fairview-U.S. 31-W intersection and at the entrance to Kereiakes Park across from Hampton Drive.

The two roundabouts create a “barbell” design that is intended to improve safety and capacity along the corridor.

The roundabouts would be used in conjunction with a median restricting left turns, thus creating what a Strand document calls “indirect left turns” that involve U-turns in the roundabouts.

Strand’s Louisville office will look at widening the road to five lanes or restricting left turns through installation of a median separator in addition to the roundabout solution.

Wisconsin-based Strand, in business since 1946, is being paid $100,000 for the study and is expected to have its draft recommendations by March. Lemon said a meeting to present the consultant’s findings and get public input will be held in the spring.

Although Strand is looking at three possible solutions, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 3 Chief Engineer Joe Plunk said the final recommendation could be some combination of the three.

“Perhaps we’ll end up with some hybrid of these three concepts,” he said. “Maybe there will be some five-lane widening and some re-directing of access points at some areas. We lay out three concepts, but often it ends up being a hybrid.”

Widening the entire stretch of Fairview Avenue doesn’t appear feasible, according to a preliminary Strand document, because of the proximity of Fairview Cemetery to the road.

Bowling Green Mayor Bruce Wilkerson, a critic of the roundabout at University Boulevard and Nashville Road when it was first proposed, said he is open to a similar concept for Fairview Avenue.

“I was skeptical of the original roundabout,” said Wilkerson. “But it has worked better than I imagined. I’ll be open to whatever options the consultant proposes. The traffic engineers know what they’re doing and know how to keep traffic moving.”

Discussions about improving Fairview Avenue have been in the works for months. Described in the Strand document as a “minor urban arterial,” Fairview Avenue showed a traffic volume of 23,730 vehicles per day in a 2016 study.

Fairview serves to connect commuters from Interstate 65 to Bowling Green, so it has high traffic volumes in the morning and in the afternoon. That congestion is expected to only worsen as more commercial and residential developments crop up along the corridor.

Ultimately, Wilkerson pointed out, what improvements can be made to the road will be decided in Frankfort.

“It (Fairview) is certainly in need of some improvements,” said Wilkerson. “And the traffic is going to continue to increase. But it’s a state highway, so any proposed improvements will be dependent on state funding.”