Something small to check out on my way to my ultimate destination for the holiday, figured it would be worth a minor thread since roundabouts and CA 43 got brought up in the CA 86 thread. Basically I guess that part of the deal with Costco opening a store in Hanford along the northwest corner of 198 and 43 was an inclusion of a new roundabout for 43 at Lacey Blvd. Considering how much truck traffic 43 gets from the local farms I found this kind of interesting but it seems to be a substantial upgrade over the old intersection.
Anyways approaching CA 43 on 198 you can see the new Costco, weird to see a redesign of a highway with a button-copy sign so close by.
The new roundabout still is missing an even grade and proper signage but the configuration is basically complete. The far right lane in the roundabout accesses CA 43 north while the left goes to Lacey Blvd westbound. I thought that the right lane was pretty decently wide enough for trucks to enter and access the truck station on eastbound Lacey:
Looping back southbound on 43 the situation looks to be little more dicey. The left lane accesses CA 43 southbound while the right takes you to westbound Lacey. Trucks definitely wouldn't be able to access the station on eastbound Lacey heading south given the embankments at the end of the roundabout. If I was to speculate where the problems are going to be it will be with the southbound approach, especially at night.
For those who don't know, Lacey Blvd was 198 up until the early 1960s when the freeway/expressway westbound to the Naval Air Station near Lemoore was built. Until a couple months ago on the southbound approach on 43 to Lacey there was a "198 Business" sign present which is gone now that roundabout is almost complete. I don't recall 198 Business being signed anywhere else along the old surface route of CA 198 in Kings County anywhere else.
I was able to get a photo of the prior 43/Lacey intersection back in August when I was tracking the surface alignment of 198 and the Parkfield Grade:
I guess that's some pretty decent progress all things considered in just a couple months. All the same probably among the most mundane things I've ever posted on the forum but anything to get me off that miserable slog that is 99.