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 commercial 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
