The AARoads Blog

Every time I see a Wilmington News Journal sign tidbit such as today’s, I know that DelDOT is yet again carbon copying signs that usually don’t need replacing in their current form (but should be updated to reflect new information, which they will not be). All the while the state budget continues to run at a deficit and the economic recession continues to worsen:

Work on overhead traffic signs will require lane closures at several New Castle County locations beginning today, the Delaware Department of Transportation says.

All of the closures will be between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., weather permitting:

Today

• Del. 72 and Del. 273 (the panel for DE 2B/273 westbound was replaced in 2004)

Tuesday

• James Street and Christian Street in Newport

• James Street and Boxwood Road (these were installed in the 1997 resigning/resurfacing project of Delaware 141!)

Wednesday

• Del. 62 and Kiamensi Road, Belvedere (which is nothing more than a subdivision)

• Centerville Road at Walmart (also installed in 1997 as part of the DE 141 project)

Thursday

• Del. 141 (& U.S. 202) southbound at Exit 1B/Del. 13 (U.S. 13) south ramp (these were installed during the 2004 Basin Road project)

One lane will remain open for traffic at all times.

I’m familiar with everyone of those locations (see links above). Sign crews will again replace the older rounded-edge signs with the new corrugated sharp-edge signs that will display the exact same information. The signs in Newport will continue to acknowledge Delaware 41, a route that has not traveled through Newport since the 1970s for instance.

What is for me an annual rant, here’s a few other examples of recent carbon copying’s that should have been updated or are a waste money wise:

This sign was installed in 1997 when the new alignment of Delaware 273 opened. Posted on Salem Church Road ahead of its end/signalized intersection with the state route, the sign erroneously signs the turn-lane onto Delaware 273 east as “TO DE 273 I-95″ when it should display “DE 273 East to I-95″.

11 years later, the signs above showed their age (just kidding) and were carbon copied to the new sharp-edged sign type. The light assemblies were removed and the signs were carbon copied and continue to show the same error for the eastbound ramp. All Delaware 4 signs at this junction also display the same error “TO DE 273″ instead of “DE 273 east”. Our tax dollars at work!

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The first sighting of Clearview font used on highway signs was reported to us recently along Interstate 95 in Delaware. New signs are being installed along the southbound (westbound) stretch of the freeway in conjunction with the “5th Lane Project”. Widening of the freeway is underway between Exit 4 (Delaware 1 & 7) and Exit 5 (U.S. 202 south & Delaware 141).

A new overhead features Clearview font for the destinations and cardinal directions, but Highway Gothic for the “Exit Only” placard and state route shields. Photo taken June 27, 2008 by I.C. Ligget.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to revisit the Blue Ball project of U.S. 202 north of Wilmington, DE. I thought that most of the U.S. 202 work was completed by May, but much to my surprise, a few more things were tweaked road and signwise.

Now travelers heading north from Wilmington via Concord Avenue (Delaware 202) remain segregated from merging traffic from Interstate 95 until after the Foulk Road (new Delaware 141 and Delaware 261) off-ramp. Additonally the Augustine Cutoff intersection is limited to just two movements now, from Delaware 202 north to it and from it to U.S. 202 south. These projects precede work at the Interstate 95 interchange that will eliminate the southbound loop ramp to Delaware 202 by adding a left-hand movement from the northbound ramp to Concord Avenue south. Work on the ramp conversion is already underway.
New overheads are up along the U.S. 202 northbound off-ramp from Interstate 95, including a set of diagrammaticals for the Foulk Road off-ramp. Additionally the one-lane directional ramp from northbound now widens to two lanes before joining Concord Pike, a new change from the original design.

Southbound overheads were completely replaced now and unfortunately omit U.S. 202 southbound’s merge onto Interstate 95 south. Signs just indicate Interstate 95 south, and a token U.S. 202 south arrow shield lies just ahead of the ramp. If U.S. 202’s merge with Interstate 95 is being downplayed, why not truncate it back to this interchange or to the U.S. 13 Business intersection at Market Street?

I checked just south of the Interstate 95 southbound off-ramp and the end U.S. 202/begin Delaware 202 assembly is still there. Which leads me to my next observation, the pull-through panels along Concord Pike south that now simply display “Wilmington”. No mention of Delaware 202 or Concord Avenue, just the control city. This is sort of a disservice to area motorists who may be destined to downtown or other parts of the city, yet the sign does not indicate anything other than the city. Concord Avenue does provide a way to downtown via Baynard Boulevard, but it is not a commercial route and if you are not familiar with the area, you may get lost and unfortunately the adjoining neighborhoods at Market Street are home to drive by shootings and other crime. If Delaware 202 is so confusing, then why not choose a new number or decommission it? What other instance does a U.S. highway split with its old route that carries the same number anyway?

For additional photos see:

U.S. 202 Delaware @ AARoads

Delaware 202 @ AARoads

Blue Ball @ AARoads

Also I hate to report it, but Interstate 95 signs for the Delaware 1 & 7 interchange were carbon copied and therefore still make no mentioning of Dover! They did add the DelDOT beach chair logo, which is supposed to convey to motorists that the road connects with the Delaware beaches. Otherwise you will still think that the 51-mile freeway only connects to “Christiana Mall Road”, which should be referenced on auxiliary signs, since Christiana and Mall Road are separate destinations…

Lastly, Delaware has uploaded portions of its Manual of Uniform Traffic Devices. Much to my surprise, the document makes no reference to the use of MUST EXIT on overhead guide signs! Even more surprising are that the rules on freeway guide signs appear to be decent, with rules against sign clutter and what styles to use. Unfortunately in the field, the sign gluttoning continues and whats with every road now being signed as an evacuation route anyway? For what are we evacuating? Hurricanes, the Salem Nuclear Power plant, insect swarms? I asked one of my best friends if he has ever evacuated in 33 years of living here and he said no. So why do we now need these signs posted on every state road in northern Delaware?

It was 1992 when I first noticed large mounds of dirt rising within the cloverleaf ramps of the Interstate 95 interchange with Delaware 7 and then fledgling-Delaware 1. The mounds were created in anticipation of a planned interchange upgrade between the Delaware Turnpike and new SR 1 Turnpike. 15 years later, the mounds remain, covered with vegetation and even a growing tree if I remember correctly.

Delaware 1 & 7 northbound at the Mall Road overpass, south of the interchange with Interstate 95. One of the aforementioned dirt mounds rises in the background (left of the right-hand side bridge supports).

Earlier this year DelDOT began a project that involves the widening of Interstate 95 through Christina Marsh. Presently the turnpike carries four lanes per direction with full inside and outside shoulders. The project is the first step taken by the state to undo years of growing congestion on the busy Interstate corridor.

The ten-laning project, if you will, will see the expansion of the freeway outward through the wetlands area; no expansion can occur within the inside lanes as a jersey barrier represents the median. Interstate 95 will carry ten lanes between Delaware 1 & 7 and the split with Interstate 295 upon completion. The new lanes will directly tie into the existing full-cloverleaf interchange between the SR 1 Turnpike and Delaware Turnpike. Completion is anticipated in 2010.

When work completes through the marsh, DelDOT hopes to break ground on a project to upgrade the failing cloverleaf interchange between Interstate 95 and Delaware 1 & 7. This much needed project has origins in the early 1990s!

Funding woes have long been an issue beleaguering the Delaware Department of Transportation. No matter how many toll increases or other fee additions come into existence, the state continues to operate at a major shortfall. An August 13, 1992 News Journal (Wilmington, DE) article entitled “Big road jobs delayed” references a funding shortage that pushed the Interstate 95/Delaware 1 & 7 interchange back from 1995-96 to 1996-97. Ten years later, no work has yet started!

A look at the revamped DelDOT website and its SR7/I-95 project website now indicates a four-year construction project that may begin in 2011, when funding becomes available. Additionally the site states “Increasing traffic volumes and development south of SR 1 has led to deteriorating levels of service within the area of Christiana Mall and the I-95/SR 1 Interchange. While morning and evening peaks continue to struggle, this area also has deteriorating traffic conditions at many other times of the day and often throughout weekends. On most days many of the ramps experience levels of service (LOS) F.” An increase of Interstate 95 tolls from $3.00 to $4.00 per passenger vehicle on October 1, 2007 was passed to help cover the funding, but that money pays for projects throughout the state, not just those associated with Interstate 95.

So with something that is obvious to anyone who drives the interchange on a daily basis, or even once or twice a month, there is a problem and there has been one for 15 years! I find a 19-year delay between the arrival of dirt within the loop ramps and bulldozers to flatten it to be just mind-blowing. Factor in a four-year construction project, and its 2015 when any relief is given to the 250,000 plus motorists that use the junction.

According to 2006 traffic counts, 182,853 vehicles a day traveled Interstate 95 between Delaware 1 & 7 and Interstate 295. 76,784 motorists utilized Delaware 1 between Delaware 273 and Interstate 95.

If matters were not worse, developers plan on expanding the burgeoning Christiana Mall commericial district by another  900,000 square feet in the form of the Christiana Fashion Center. Just west of the area, between Delaware 7 and 273, an additional 600,000 square feet of new commercial development is also proposed. With Delaware not levying sales tax, shoppers will add to the fray of an already awful situation on the roads at Interstate 95 and Delaware 1. Who wants to bet that the retail development will be completed before the interchange upgrade?

Additional sources:

“Christiana plan could lead to traffic jam.” The News Journal (Wilmington, DE), October 14, 2007

An inside joke, sort of… The fact of the matter is that Maine @ AARoads is once again up to date with all our existing coverage that includes a short excursion in the Kittery and York areas as part of our July-August New England road trip. That joins Maine with Arkansas as the only two of the lower 48 states without existing coverage in the queue for future AARoads updates!

In the meantime, I am approximately midway through my updates to Delaware Highways that include trips to the Diamond State dating back to December of 2005. Most of the work involves replacing photos or adding new photos to the guides. However projects involving the widening of Interstate 95 are underway and the U.S. 301 toll road proposal is on the horizon too. Also the other week I created a page and added coverage on the Blue Ball construction project north of Wilmington. A partial interchange now joins U.S. 202, a relocated Delaware 141, and Delaware 261 at the former site of a signalized intersection. The new configuration is so confusing, I decided to craft a map to illustrate it. Additional updates will focus on the Dover and Milford area as well as an update to the SR 1 Turnpike guides.

The Burlington, VT focus page I created two weeks ago will be accompanied with recent and 2005 photos soon too. So that leaves this question, what areas should next be updated or new areas added?

The 2008 State Budget for Delaware passed this Summer and in it are changes that will affect many drivers through Delaware. At stake in the $3.28-billion budget are increases in tolls on both Interstate 95 at the Delaware state line and the SR 1 Turnpike between Dover and Christiana. Tolls for Interstate 95 will increase from $3.00 per passenger vehicle to $4.00. Each of the SR 1 Turnpike plaza tolls will double from $1 per passenger vehicle to $2 on weekends but remain the same on weekdays. Late-night EZ Pass discounts for Interstate 95 will be eliminated. Frequent commuter EZ Pass discounts for the SR 1 Turnpike however will remain. These announcements were made official with signing of the budget and toll increases take effect October 1.

In a related toll increase, the Delaware River & Bay Authority (DRBA) voted July 17, 2007 to increase the commercial vehicle toll on the Delaware Memorial Bridge from $3.00 to $4.00 per axle starting in January 2008. A second toll increase is expected in 2010 to pay for $300 million in future projects such as redecking the bridges. Justification of the initial tolls increases will add $11 million per year to the DRBA project. Items on their project list include $21.5 million to widen the Interstate 295 approach to the bridge including adding lanes at the U.S. 13 & 40 interchange at Farnhurst, replacing the Norfolk Southern railroad bridge, and road work on the roadway to the Cape May Lewes Ferry (also operated by the DRBA).

Interstate 295 only carries four overall lanes through the Farnhurst interchange with U.S. 13 & 40. Toll increases will pay for expansion of the freeway to six overall lanes at the directional interchange. Photo taken May 19, 2007.

What is not proposed for Delaware is the building of high-speed EZ-Pass only express or commuter lanes for Interstate 95. Robert Poole, director of transportation studies for the nonprofit Reason Foundation in California, states that Interstate 95 is not feasible for high-speed toll lanes because it has too many exits. Yet Interstate 394 in Minneapolis, a freeway shorter than the Delaware Turnpike, with four freeway to freeway interchanges, six full access interchanges, and two half interchanges, supports them efficiently. EZ Pass express lanes could easily carry through traffic without any destination in Delaware, such as those traveling between Baltimore-Washington and the New Jersey Turnpike via the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Such high-speed lanes could be constructed on an elevated viaduct, similar to Interstate 110 in Los Angeles or the Crosstown Expressway in Tampa…

Delaware Transportation Department spokesman Darrel Cole indicates that the toll increases get DelDOT one step closer to rebuilding the ailing cloverleaf interchange between Delaware 1 and Interstate 95. However changes to that interchange are years away, so his statement will not resonate with drivers until actual work begins. A widening project of Interstate 95 between Delaware 1 & 7 and the split with Interstate 295 however began this year to add one additional travel lane in each direction.

Sources:

1. “State budget raises taxes, tolls and fees.” The News Journal (Wilmington, DE), June 21, 2007.
2. “Toll Increase On Delaware Memorial Bridge.” WBOC-TV 16, July 18, 2007.
3. “Pricey stretch of I-95 about to get pricier.” The News Journal (Wilmington, DE), July 8, 2007.
4. Froehlig, Adam

An article in today’s Delaware News Journal updates us on the long planned widening of Interstate 95 between Exits 4AB (Delaware 1 & 7) and 5A/B (U.S. 202 & Delaware 141) through Christiana Marsh. This work follows area projects completed within the last ten years including the extension of the Delaware 1 (& 7) freeway to include a partial-cloverleaf interchange with Delaware 58 (Churchmans Road) and the replacement of the Churchmans Road bridge over Interstate 95 with a new wider span (the new span accommodates the wider footprint of expanded Interstate 95).

Built between April 2005 and December 8, 2006, the $13 million Churchmans Road overpass spans Interstate 95 just east of its predecessor. The new bridge includes a bike path, but overall retains just two lanes with full shoulders/merge lanes (similar to the original span). Photo taken 12/23/06.

Widening of the most congested stretch of Interstate 95 between Baltimore and Philadelphia involves building an additional main line travel lane in both directions. Crews will add lanes on the outside of both carriageways, a process expected to take 1.5 years and cost $51 million according to the New Jersey firm R.E. Pierson Construction Co, the likely contractor for the work. Pierson can complete the work in much less time than two other contractors bidding on the work, but for a higher cost. DelDOT is waging time over money in their decision, a wise move given the daily congestion-related traffic jams on the stretch. At least four 11′ lanes will remain open at all times during the project.

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A few updates, some rants and other observations of Delaware Roads – late 2006.

So much for the new “Delaware 141 Spur” being an actual spur. Instead the “Spur” is a relocated Delaware 141 mainline. Why is it so difficult to get the nomenclature right in the state of Delaware? If the road was an actual spur, it would not be considered the Delaware 141 mainline, especially with Delaware 141 North facing South at its end. But that is exactly how it is, despite little green street signs displaying “RT 141 Spur”. I investigated the new “interchange” with U.S. 202 and Delaware 261 on December 23 to see the results of several years of road work.

Delaware 141 now travels southeast from the intersection of Children’s Drive and Powder Mill Road over the former Rockland Road alignment to meet U.S. 202 and Delaware 261 (Foulk Road) at the new partial-interchange. Delaware 141 northbound faces southbound and enters the junction with U.S. 202 in this picture. Interests to U.S. 202 north and south are now advised to take Delaware 141 north to this interchange, rather than remaining on Powder Mill Road east. Powder Mill Road is now simply signed as “nothing”, but it still is a better way to reach U.S. 202 north from Delaware 141 north in lieu of this southward detour. I don’t get why signs do not split interests to U.S. 202 north and south between the two roadways, but perhaps it was at the request of Astra-Zenica, which owns the land both north and south of Powder Mill Road.

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After on and off debate for well over 35 years, Delaware officials have finally chosen a path for U.S. 301 that most people can live with. South of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal in the bustling community of Middletown, whose city limits have expanded dramatically in recent years to accommodate the pervasive sprawl of the Wilmington metro area, is the only two-lane bottleneck of U.S. 301 between the Washington metropolitan area and the Newark area. U.S. 301 already follows a full freeway with U.S. 50 east from the Bowie area across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge onto the Eastern Shore of Maryland. North of the split with U.S. 50, U.S. 301 follows a four-lane expressway (access controlled but not limited) to the Delaware state line southwest of Middletown. Once in Delaware, U.S. 301 narrows to just four lanes through Middletown and Mt. Pleasant, before again expanding to four-lanes at the merge with Delaware 896. U.S. 301 & Delaware 896 head northward across the Summit Bridge to junction U.S. 40, the northern terminus of U.S. 301.

Open fields and farmland becomes suburban sprawl on a yearly, if not monthly, basis in Middletown. The increased and unorganized development puts a strain on U.S. 301 and the other Middletown area roads (Delaware 15, 71, 299).

U.S. 301 creates a popular truck bypass route of Baltimore for commercial drivers emanating between Virginia and points south to New Jersey and points north. In addition some local motorists use the highway between Washington and the Wilmington metropolitan area. As Middletown grows in an unregulated fashion, U.S. 301 becomes increasingly congested with the addition of local commuters to the pre-existing through traffic. Factor in the fact that the highway is both four-lanes north and south of Middletown, and the situation becomes worse with impatient drivers unable to make safe passes.

Beginning in the 1960s, Delaware officials began planning a north-south freeway along the U.S. 301 corridor from Interstate 95 south to the Maryland state line. Corridors included alignments along the state line and alignments tying into the planned Pike Creek Freeway at unconstructed Exit 2 of the Delaware Turnpike. All of the previous proposals for a U.S. 301 freeway met stiff resistance and by 1995, all were shelved.

Flash forward to 2000 and the suburbanization of Middletown, and the freeway idea was reconceptualized as a toll road. The growth of previously rural southern New Castle County has put great strain on U.S. 301 and other area roads. The lack of access control on U.S. 301 also plays into the increasing congestion of the Middletown through-road network. So with all that stated, officials went to the drawing boards and presented the public with numerous options for a limited-access highway to replace the surface-road routing of U.S. 301 in Middletown. Alternatives considered even included the ‘Ridge Route’ and other options from the original 1960s and 70s freeway concepts between Summit Bridge and the Maryland state line.

Last week officials chose a preferred alternate for the new U.S. 301, which will be a tolled facility, after two years of data collecting and public input. Dubbed the green route on planning maps, new U.S. 301 will split from the existing road just north of the Maryland state line and travel along the “Ridge” alternative west of Middletown (the Ridge represents the line from which water flows west to Chesapeake Bay and east to Delaware Bay). Northwest of Middletown, new U.S. 301 turns northeast toward existing U.S. 301 at point south of Mt. Pleasant. The toll road arcs across the Whitehall property, farmland long awaiting the addition of 2,500 new homes, to its end at the SR 1 Turnpike near the Biddles Corner Toll Plaza.

In addition to the U.S. 301 toll road mainline, the green alternative includes a Super Two spur from Summit Bridge southward to U.S. 301 north of Middletown. This concept also revives another element of the 1960s/70s proposal to incorporate Summit Bridge into a U.S. 301 freeway. The Super Two toll road ties into Delaware 71 & 896 at their intersection with Delaware 15 on the south approach to the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal crossing.

The News Journal ran an article on the toll road today:

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I cull through the Delaware News Journal’s online website almost every day looking for road related stories for the website and for my personal interest in my former state. One was posted today about Interstate 95 and its growing congestion and lack of money to upgrade the ailing interchange with Delaware 1 and the bottleneck at the Interstate 295 split.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060709/NEWS/60709005/1006

The article just says the same thing that is said all the time about Interstate 95. The road is bad, improvements are needed, but there is no money, and nothing is going to happen in the immediate future. The multimedia section however has some video from Deldot of I-95’s construction, and there’s some neat stuff in there including a sign that displays “Interstate 295 to U.S. 13 – New Jersey Wilmington” and a mileage sign that displays both Baltimore and Washington. Seeing I-295 with a control point of Wilmington is a first for me and I’ve never ever seen Washington as a control point in Delaware.
Also on the flash video are some scenes of Delaware Turnpike toll plazas which look strikingly similar to those built on the SR 1 Turnpike in the 1990s. DelDOT still uses the same bridge support design as the spans built during the 1960s for Interstate 95, and one sign in the video was still in place as of 2004, the Maryland 279 – one mile guide sign along southbound in Newark. See some screen shots below: (more…)