PADDOCK LAKE — Central High School is unlikely to complete the new entrance to the school until next fall as the school grapples with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s call for the creation of a roundabout at the new intersection.

The new access road, connecting the campus to Highway 83, is part of a $7.9 million project that includes a new football stadium, track, tennis courts, and baseball field. The project was slated for completion in time for this school year, but construction delays have pushed back the timelines.

Although the road is under construction, Central is still working on an agreement with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation over the intersection at the school.

“This is the biggest challenge of the entire project,” said Administrator Scott Pierce.

He said the project is unlikely to be completed before the beginning of next school year.

Although initially opposed, Central has agreed to build a roundabout intersection on Highway 83 at the school entrance. In exchange, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation will no longer ask that Central pay for improvements to the intersection at highways 50 and 83.

Pierce said it will ultimately be less expensive for the high school to pay for the roundabout than it would have been to pay for improvements at 50 and 83.

But the project will still be far more expensive than Central had anticipated when it budgeted for putting in traffic lights at a standard T-intersection at the new entrance.

“The biggest challenge, of course, is how we are going to pay for it,” Pierce said.

He estimated the roundabout will cost about $500,000. The district had budgeted $175,000 for the T-intersection improvements.

Pierce said the district could issue bonds to pay for the roundabout — he said schools can bond up to $1 million — but that spending would then fall under the district’s state revenue cap and have a negative impact on how much the school could spend on education expenses.

It could also pay from district savings, “but again, you don’t want to be dipping into the reserve because you need those funds for rainy days,” Pierce said.

The state has been promoting the construction of roundabouts, saying the circular intersections are safer than traditional intersections. According to the Department of Transportation, the intersections slow traffic and result in fewer injury accidents.

Under the guidelines of the Department of Transportation, the school district will do the engineering for the roundabout, although their plans will have to be approved by the department. The school’s engineers have already submitted conceptual plans for a 125-foot in diameter single-lane roundabout at the entrance.

Pierce said the district needs direction from the Department of Transportation on the design specifications before it can get a better estimate of the costs of construction.

Dennis Shook, spokesman for the Department of Transportation, said those specifications are not likely to be ready until after the first of the year.

“That process takes several months,” Shook said. “They’re not going to have a dollar amount on this until at least the end of the year, probably longer.”

The high school will then be responsible for bidding the project and hiring the contractors to build the intersection.

Pierce said that construction process is likely to be a major undertaking.

“I don’t see how you are going to do a roundabout without closing 83,” he said.

Despite the complications, Pierce said abandoning the new entry plan is not an option.

“For us to spend close to $1 million on that (new entry) road and have it be a road to nowhere, the district would look pretty foolish,” he said.