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Author Topic: Delaware  (Read 695212 times)

deathtopumpkins

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Re: Delaware
« Reply #100 on: September 28, 2010, 10:25:26 AM »

Well even taking landscaping and parking lots would still be expensive... And if I recall correctly, the wide median is only through certain towns.
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Re: Delaware
« Reply #101 on: October 12, 2010, 08:19:45 AM »

Noticed 2 more roundabouts in southern New Castle County on Friday:  at DE 15/St. Annes Church Rd, and at St. Annes Church Rd/Wiggins Mill Rd.  Both junctions involved realignment of all roads involved, and all have a 4th, currently unused leg to serve future development.  If you look at Google Maps, you can see the ROW plats for both junctions.
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Re: Delaware
« Reply #102 on: October 12, 2010, 10:11:39 AM »

Noticed 2 more roundabouts in southern New Castle County on Friday:  at DE 15/St. Annes Church Rd, and at St. Annes Church Rd/Wiggins Mill Rd.  Both junctions involved realignment of all roads involved, and all have a 4th, currently unused leg to serve future development.  If you look at Google Maps, you can see the ROW plats for both junctions.

Both those unused legs are going to serve the same development - Westown Phase 1 (free-standing houses, townhouses, and apartments) will be going in to the north.  I laid out the new property lines for that not too long ago.  I guess Google Maps hasn't caught up with us here at New Castle County.
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Re: Delaware
« Reply #103 on: October 16, 2010, 11:06:39 AM »

U.S. 301 improvements in Middletown on target

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The $11 million project should be done by the end of the year, but motorists can still expect delays in the meantime

By ROBIN BROWN - The News Journal - October 15, 2010

An $11 million project to improve U.S. 301 in the Middletown area is on schedule to be finished by the end of the year, state road officials said today.

But motorists can expect some daytime delays Monday and Tuesday as the next phase of the project begins.

The massive project -- blamed for creating a variety of traffic issues including minor crashes involving inattentive drivers -- began in July 2008, with A-Del Construction as its primary contractor.

Jim Westhoff, a DelDOT community relations officer, said the upcoming delays will be caused by the removal and replacement of concrete barriers to establish a new traffic pattern.

Traffic will be shifted to the outside lanes of each direction between Del. 299 and Ash Boulevard, Westhoff said.

“This lane shift is necessary to allow contractors to complete new medians and turn lanes,”  he said.

The new traffic pattern is expected to last about six weeks, Westhoff said, to be followed by the final placement of asphalt on U.S. 301 north of Del. 299.

But, he said, “because the work is weather sensitive, this phase of the project could be prolonged by poor conditions.”

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Re: Delaware
« Reply #104 on: October 17, 2010, 09:13:37 AM »

^ Does that tie into the proposed 301 turnpike proposal, or is this in a different location?
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Re: Delaware
« Reply #105 on: October 17, 2010, 09:58:33 PM »

Separate from the turnpike proposal.  This was improvements along the existing route.
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Major delays expected at I-95 toll plaza during holiday
« Reply #106 on: November 19, 2010, 12:10:25 PM »

One of my old traditions on the day before Thanksgiving was to drive a way home from work that day that took me over Interstate 95 near the toll plaza (Otts Chapel Road or Welsh Tract Road) so I could see how bad it truly was.

Major delays expected at I-95 toll plaza during holiday

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Construction at the I-95 toll plaza near Newark is expected to cause extreme delays next week because of the Thanksgiving holiday, the Delaware Department of Transportation said.

Travel delays are expected to start as early as Tuesday morning and continue until the evening of Nov. 29. At peak times, delays are expected to stretch for miles.

DelDOT released a chart showing expected peak travel times on I-95 during the holiday weekend.

Motorists are encouraged to use alternative routes or to travel during hours with lower traffic volumes.

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Delaware roads: I-95 toll is region's biggest backup
« Reply #107 on: November 24, 2010, 12:05:46 PM »

Delaware roads: I-95 toll is region's biggest backup

Unfinished expansion could lead to 20-mile holiday jams

By JEFF MONTGOMERY - The News Journal - November 24, 2010

Quote
Plenty of people come through the door these days at Leon's Garden Center on Elkton Road, not far from the busy I-95 toll plaza near the Delaware-Maryland line.

Too often, owner Leon Silicki said Tuesday, they're looking for a way to beat toll plaza charges and epic interstate traffic snarls near Newark that DelDOT warns could reach meltdown levels this Thanksgiving.

"Traffic is incredible. Our big thing is we probably have 50 people coming in a day, asking 'How do I get back to I-95,' because they don't want to go through the toll or pay the toll," Silicki said. "It's almost to the point where it becomes annoying for local people."

By Sunday, Delaware's stretch of I-95 will likely be annoying for a lot more than locals as an unfinished, $32 million toll plaza expansion turns into the biggest holiday traffic turkey of any predicted by highway, bridge and airport agencies across the mid-Atlantic.

Usually reserved DelDOT officials have admitted publicly that lane and toll-booth closings are likely to cause backups in coming days that will last through Monday. Problems "are expected to be greater than in recent years, and could stretch for miles and take hours to clear."

Jim Lardear, public and government affairs director for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said Tuesday that backups could stretch 20 miles, dwarfing last year's seven-mile crawl.

"It's important that people plan ahead and look for alternatives," Lardear said.

Warnings about the Delaware bottleneck already have gone out to highway agencies from North Carolina to Boston, and roadside message boards have been placed in Pennsylvania and Maryland miles before the Delaware line.

"We seriously considered offering alternate route directions, but it became an overwhelming task, because we have thousands of different destination points from start to end," said Michael Williams of DelDOT.

Newark's toll plaza handled an average 73,000 vehicles daily last year, peaking at 130,000 on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Forecasts for travelers elsewhere were relatively serene, by comparison.


Quote

The Maryland Transportation Authority holiday advisory focused heavily on Delaware's choke point. MTA officials also cautioned that the U.S. 40 Hatem Memorial Bridge over the Susquehanna River at Perryville was unlikely to offer solace for those abandoning I-95, because of lane closings and construction on that span.


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An estimated 700,000 vehicles are expected to travel I-95 in Maryland, and 460,000 are predicted for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge crossing east of Annapolis.

Jenny Robinson of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation said the Keystone State, like Delaware and Maryland, halts construction projects during the Thanksgiving holiday whenever possible to keep traffic flowing even in heavy hours.

"Thanksgiving is the busiest travel season of the year. There's going to be a lot of volume on the highways regardless of whether or not there's construction," Robinson said. "People certainly should be aware of that and plan on extra time."

Pennsylvania and surrounding states will step up police patrols and enforcement of seat-belt laws and other regulations, Robinson added.

Delaware River and Bay Authority Police Master Cpl. Joseph DiStefano said all lanes and booths will be open on the twin spans of the Delaware Memorial Bridge this holiday, with traffic for Wednesday through Sunday expected to hit 320,000 vehicles, up from 316,000 last year.

Traffic is expected to be heaviest from 3 to 8 p.m. today, DiStefano cautioned.

States all along the Atlantic Coast now maintain websites that offer real-time maps with highways color-coded by current congestion levels. DelDOT's map page is at www.del dot.gov/traffic/map.ejs. PennDOT operates a travel advisory at www.511pa.com. Maryland's version is at www.traffic.md.gov.

In addition, the multi-state I-95 Corridor Coalition maintains an elaborate trip-planning and congestion-monitoring site at www.i95travelinfo.net.

The coalition service allows travelers to get estimates of current travel times and locate bottlenecks at any point along I-95 and nearby interstates between Florida and Maine. By Tuesday afternoon, the Newark-area portion of the coalition's map was locked in a state of perpetual red and purple, codes for heavy and stop-and-go traffic.

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Free Del. tolls smooth drive
« Reply #108 on: November 25, 2010, 04:55:35 PM »

Free Del. tolls smooth drive and fliers elect not to 'opt-out'

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Thanksgiving holiday travelers caught some breaks Wednesday as Delaware moved to uncork a potentially historic bottleneck by waiving tolls on its turnpike, and a much-publicized protest at the nation's airports appeared to have fizzled.

The decision to suspend collection of northbound Delaware Turnpike tolls between 3:15 p.m. and 11 p.m. Wednesday came after traffic backed up nearly six miles onto Maryland's John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway. Though the toll plaza at Newark is a well-known bottleneck where hourlong delays are not unusual, it was the first time in at least 15 years the state has waived collections.

Quote
The delays were far more severe Wednesday for auto travelers heading through Delaware – at least until the tolls were waived. Shortly before 3 p.m., the Maryland Transportation Authority estimated the delay at the toll plaza at 30 minutes.

In the days leading up to the holiday, transportation officials in the two states had issued public warnings that construction at the toll plaza could result in a traffic jam of historic proportions – perhaps stretching a far back as the Susquehanna River – because of a construction project that has closed three of the nine northbound toll lanes.

The public warnings may have had their intended effect. Teri Moss, a spokeswoman for the Maryland toll authority, said the vehicle count at the Kennedy Highway toll plaza leading to Delaware was 3,000 between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Wednesday – compared with 4,200 the same time a year ago. She said that could indicate many travelers changed their routes or travel times.

Moss said that after Delaware waived the tolls, the backups into Maryland eased considerably. By late afternoon, a traffic camera on I-95 at Elkton, which had earlier captured a slow-moving backup, showed that traffic was heavy but flowing freely.

Michael Williams, a spokesman for the Delaware transportation department, said travelers shouldn't necessarily expect that the state will be as generous with southbound travelers this weekend.

The traffic conditions affecting the northbound lanes Wednesday were "certainly exceptional," he said.

"We've never had lane closures that couldn't be opened before a major holiday," he said, adding that it was the first time in the 15 years he's been with the agency that tolls were waived.

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Re: Delaware
« Reply #109 on: December 09, 2010, 11:54:21 AM »

Delaware government: DelDOT urged to reroute US 113 project
No local support, lawmakers say

Quote
REHOBOTH BEACH -- Political opposition grew on Wednesday to a proposed 16-mile bypass of U.S. 113 in Sussex County, threatening the future of the project.

Three state lawmakers met privately with Transportation Secretary Carolann Wicks in Rehoboth Beach in an effort to stop the current plan.

"There's no support for the southern end of the route," said Sen. George Bunting Jr., D-Bethany Beach, referring to residents of Dagsboro, Frankford and Selbyville. "I don't know how there can be a much stronger signal than that."

There's not much support for the northern route, either. Several legislators, including those who attended the meeting, have expressed outrage that the state has been paying a group of developers led by Robert Tunnell Jr. $50,000 a month since 2008 to reserve land for the project near where Del. 24 intersects U.S. 113.

The state is also paying a developer at the Dagsboro end of the route $10,000 a month not to build.

The News Journal reported on Sunday that the deals are costing taxpayers $721,000 a year, ostensibly to prevent the developers from launching new housing complexes during the worst housing market in Sussex County's history.

"My personal opinion is it [the project] costs too much money," said Sen. Robert Venables Sr., D-Laurel, who co-chaired the bond bill committee but did not attend the meeting Wednesday. The proposed eastern bypass does not make sense, he said, because of the need for three bridges, including a span twice as long as the new bridge over the Indian River Inlet. That project has been plagued with problems.

About six years ago, a study group began investigating the feasibility of a U.S. 113 relief route to direct traffic around Millsboro, where the highway has the highest fatality rate of any state highway. Many accidents have occurred at the numerous intersections along the roadway. Traffic on the overburdened road is primarily regulated with stop signs and yield signs.

Traffic in the rural area has increased steadily as vacationers from more populous areas have jammed roads leading to the state's beach towns.

REHOBOTH BEACH -- Political opposition grew on Wednesday to a proposed 16-mile bypass of U.S. 113 in Sussex County, threatening the future of the project.

Three state lawmakers met privately with Transportation Secretary Carolann Wicks in Rehoboth Beach in an effort to stop the current plan.

"There's no support for the southern end of the route," said Sen. George Bunting Jr., D-Bethany Beach, referring to residents of Dagsboro, Frankford and Selbyville. "I don't know how there can be a much stronger signal than that."

There's not much support for the northern route, either. Several legislators, including those who attended the meeting, have expressed outrage that the state has been paying a group of developers led by Robert Tunnell Jr. $50,000 a month since 2008 to reserve land for the project near where Del. 24 intersects U.S. 113.

The state is also paying a developer at the Dagsboro end of the route $10,000 a month not to build.

The News Journal reported on Sunday that the deals are costing taxpayers $721,000 a year, ostensibly to prevent the developers from launching new housing complexes during the worst housing market in Sussex County's history.

"My personal opinion is it [the project] costs too much money," said Sen. Robert Venables Sr., D-Laurel, who co-chaired the bond bill committee but did not attend the meeting Wednesday. The proposed eastern bypass does not make sense, he said, because of the need for three bridges, including a span twice as long as the new bridge over the Indian River Inlet. That project has been plagued with problems.

About six years ago, a study group began investigating the feasibility of a U.S. 113 relief route to direct traffic around Millsboro, where the highway has the highest fatality rate of any state highway. Many accidents have occurred at the numerous intersections along the roadway. Traffic on the overburdened road is primarily regulated with stop signs and yield signs.

Traffic in the rural area has increased steadily as vacationers from more populous areas have jammed roads leading to the state's beach towns.

DelDOT decided in April that the route proposed for a bypass would take traffic to the east of Millsboro, Dagsboro and Frankford. The crescent-shaped highway, known variously as the blue route and Millsboro-South Area, is estimated to affect 1,298 acres. The project needs to be approved by the Federal Highway Administration. Wicks has said the earliest that approval could come would be 2012. It is expected to cost between $687 million and $839 million.

Sen. Harris McDowell, R-Wilmington North, said the residents of Sussex County presented strong arguments when they came before the bond bill committee last spring to oppose the bypass project.

"I thought they made a very good case," he said.

As the meeting with Bunting broke up on Wednesday, Rep. John Atkins, D-Millsboro, and Rep. Gerald Hocker, R-Ocean View, said they asked Wicks to focus first on the Millsboro problem by moving the route north through land already owned by the state, eliminating the need for access to the Tunnell project.

Atkins said he suggested that the route go farther north before rejoining U.S. 113 on state-owned land near Sussex Central High School and the Stockley Center.

"John's idea is the best solution I've heard so far," Bunting said of Atkins' proposal. "I think we brought some things to light."

Wicks said the legislators outlined their objections to the alignment and DelDOT will continue "to work on their concerns and issues." She was accompanied by the recently-named deputy transportation secretary, Cleon Cauley Sr., who is a land-use lawyer.

Gov. Jack Markell and Wicks on Monday announced they would investigate the deals in response to outrage from citizens and legislators.

Markell appointed his chief of staff, Tom McGonigle, to conduct a "thorough review" of the two agreements.

The review will examine the process for making agreements in advance of highway construction. The agency has no formal policy defining or governing such agreements, according to Frederick Schranck, deputy attorney general assigned to DelDOT.

Bunting said Wednesday he is glad Markell has called for the investigation.

The process for acquiring land in advance of highway construction "should be more open," Bunting said.

The legislators were "the last in line" to be told, he said. "The public should know about it."

Angry citizens are contacting local lawmakers to request the project not be funded. Venables said he plans to meet with a group of concerned residents this week.

"I just doubt DelDOT's ability to build three new bridges, including a new span across the Indian River," said Carrie Bennett of Frankford.

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Re: Delaware
« Reply #110 on: December 18, 2010, 10:51:46 AM »

Going expected to be slow again for holiday travelers

State warns drivers of toll-plaza backups

Quote
Another holiday, another traffic nightmare.

That's the warning Delaware travel authorities are sending to Christmas drivers, who could find themselves stuck in the same kinds of backups that made Thanksgiving a headache for hundreds of thousands of people.

The I-95 toll plaza near Newark is still undergoing reconstruction, so there are fewer travel lanes to handle the crush of holiday traffic, which AAA Mid-Atlantic predicts will be greater than last year.

The Delaware Department of Transportation said this week the delays "could stretch for miles and take hours to clear," the same wording the agency used in its pre-Thanksgiving message.

Combined with some of the region's highest per-mile toll rates, the congestion in Delaware angers people like Greg Cohen, president of the American Highway Users Alliance, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., that pushes for safe and uncongested highways.

"It's still frustrating for people from out of state to pay these tolls year after year and then sit in traffic year after year," Cohen said.

At Thanksgiving, the crush of traffic led to 10-mile backups. On the Wednesday before the holiday, DelDOT waived the tolls for about 21,000 northbound drivers stalled by an overturned tractor-trailer, costing the state about $86,000 in lost income.

DelDOT should consider waiving its tolls again if traffic piles up for Christmas travelers, Cohen said.

"If you're charging people a toll, you should provide a guaranteed level of service," Cohen said. "If you can't do that, you should waive the toll. It's a lot of money, but it would be a nice Christmas present for a lot of people."

DelDOT isn't inclined to do that again, an official told the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council on Friday.

"It was an emergency situation," said Brian Motyl, administrator of DelDOT's Transportation Trust Fund, which pays for road projects statewide. But "we have to be careful when we do that because it is a revenue source."

The Thanksgiving jam could have been worse, DelDOT Secretary Carolann Wicks said in a statement this week.

Drivers heeded the agency's dire warnings and apparently found alternative routes, she said. Traffic through the toll plaza was down nearly 10 percent, or almost 69,000 vehicles, from last year.

Cohen was unmoved.

"In the spirit of the season, I don't want to be mean about it, but that's small comfort for people who want to take the most direct route to their destination," Cohen said.

DelDOT said the toll plaza reconstruction project will help alleviate the kind of congestion it has been causing lately.

Once finished, the plaza will have two high-speed E-ZPass lanes and seven cash lanes in each direction. Also, the plaza will get wider northbound approach lanes, new signs and pavement markings, better lighting and an overhead passage for toll collectors.

The $32 million project is funded by the federal stimulus program, known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"Perhaps when all the pain of the reconstruction is over, we'll all be cheering Delaware," Cohen said.

AAA Mid-Atlantic predicts more than 25,000 Delawareans will travel at least 50 miles from home during the Christmas season, an increase of 3.4 percent from last year, said spokesman Jim Lardear.

"You can figure most of those people will be on I-95," he said.

Nationwide, 92.3 million Americans are expected to travel between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2, an increase of 3.1 percent from last year, AAA reported.

Nearly all of those travelers -- 94 percent in Delaware, 93 percent nationwide -- are expected to go by car.

AAA has predicted increases in holiday travel all year, which is an indicator of an improving economy, Lardear said.

Drivers may be frustrated by a recent spike in gas prices -- the average is now $3.11 a gallon in Delaware, up from $2.55 last year -- but they're keeping their travel plans intact, he said.

Delaware has a bad reputation among many out-of-state travelers because of its congestion and high toll, Cohen said. Delaware's charge of $4 each way for passenger vehicles is one of the highest per-mile tolls on I-95, which stretches 1,830 miles between Maine and Florida.

There are no tolls on I-95 south of Baltimore all the way to Miami. When the federal government banned tolls on interstate highways in 1956, Delaware and other northeastern states were exempted because they already had tolls on the roads, Cohen said.

"But still, it isn't very nice to take advantage of people," he said.

DelDOT collected $117.2 million in I-95 tolls last year. They money makes up about 28 percent of the state's Transportation Trust Fund, which pays for road projects statewide.

"Most of the locals know to avoid that interchange," Lardear said. But out-of-state travelers "don't know the way around it, so they get stuck in it."

Alternate routes like U.S. 40, U.S. 1 and U.S. 301 aren't designed to handle the 73,000 vehicles that pass through the toll plaza daily, let alone the 130,000 vehicles typical for a peak travel day, Lardear said.

Cohen said he knows the local roads that will take him around the toll plaza and past a doughnut shop or a diner with good milkshakes.

"It's not good for my waistline, but I'd rather stop there because I'd rather not pay the toll," he said.

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Re: Delaware
« Reply #111 on: December 18, 2010, 12:22:44 PM »

Cohen's an idiot, as is the article writer to a lesser extent.
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Re: Delaware
« Reply #112 on: December 19, 2010, 07:26:45 AM »

Delaware seems to be going through a change in contract nomenclature.  The project code for the just-advertised (large) I-95/SR 1 improvement is given on the DelDOT website and on the plans title sheet as T200809003, but all the drawing chopblocks and the project limits sheet still say 28-090-03.  There is a smaller bridge job, maybe part of the overall construction program, under code T201009004.
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Re: Delaware
« Reply #113 on: December 19, 2010, 11:18:52 AM »


DelDOT said the toll plaza reconstruction project will help alleviate the kind of congestion it has been causing lately.

Once finished, the plaza will have two high-speed E-ZPass lanes and seven cash lanes in each direction. Also, the plaza will get wider northbound approach lanes, new signs and pavement markings, better lighting and an overhead passage for toll collectors.

I don't think that will be helpful enough.  The best solution here, if not implementing 100% open road tolling, is at least to go to one-way tolling.  (Southbound to complement the NB toll at the Susquehanna.)  That gives you several more booths in the tolled direction and no more backups in the open direction.

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Re: Delaware
« Reply #114 on: December 19, 2010, 08:04:30 PM »


DelDOT said the toll plaza reconstruction project will help alleviate the kind of congestion it has been causing lately.

Once finished, the plaza will have two high-speed E-ZPass lanes and seven cash lanes in each direction. Also, the plaza will get wider northbound approach lanes, new signs and pavement markings, better lighting and an overhead passage for toll collectors.

I don't think that will be helpful enough.  The best solution here, if not implementing 100% open road tolling, is at least to go to one-way tolling.  (Southbound to complement the NB toll at the Susquehanna.)  That gives you several more booths in the tolled direction and no more backups in the open direction.
If they do that, then I feel it would only be necessary to do that for the Delaware Memorial Bridge, but in the free direction at the border.
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Re: Delaware
« Reply #115 on: December 20, 2010, 12:32:00 PM »

As many of you know, I'm not a big fan of All Electronic Tolling.

However, the Newark toll barrier makes the strongest case I've seen so far for an AET setup.
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Re: Delaware
« Reply #116 on: January 08, 2011, 11:03:38 AM »

Delaware roads: Trouble again delays Indian River Inlet bridge

Quote
The $150 million Indian River Inlet bridge has been delayed for the second time in recent months and is now not scheduled to open until December.

The latest trouble for the 2,600-foot span centers on massive, hanging frames that will be used in molding each of the over-water segments of the structure...

...Contractor Skanska USA has hoisted one of the frames to a point close to its starting position near the bridge's north tower. A second will be positioned on the south side in several weeks, said Geoff Sundstrom, DelDOT deputy public-relations director.

Months were lost, however, after workers discovered that a key pair of 200-ton metal frames needed extensive reinforcement and modification before they can be used to mold the 24-foot, 400-ton sections of reinforced concrete that will support the roadway.

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Re: Delaware
« Reply #117 on: February 19, 2011, 11:03:44 AM »

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Re: Delaware
« Reply #118 on: February 22, 2011, 04:38:31 PM »

Construction of new Christiana Mall bridge starts next week

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Construction is set to begin next week on a new bridge over Del. 1 into Christiana Mall.

Mumford & Miller, a Middletown-based contractor, has been awarded the $12.2 million contract to build the bridge, the Delaware Department of Transportation announced Monday.

The project is scheduled to start Monday and be completed within 259 days, DelDOT said.

The work will require nighttime road closures for now, said DelDOT spokesman Bob King. As the project nears completion, daytime closures will be needed for short periods, he said.

"If you're talking about nighttime travel, there will be a lane or two closed," he said. "During the day, there won't be many closures."

The project involves construction of the new bridge about a tenth of a mile south of the existing bridge. The new bridge will tie in to the mall's "ring road."

The bridge project is part of the much larger redesign of the interchange at I-95 and Del. 1, which has become increasingly congested during rush hour and holidays.

High-speed ramps will be built to connect Del. 1 northbound with I-95 northbound and to connect I-95 southbound with Del. 1 southbound.

The bridge over Del. 1 must move south to make space for the elevation and slope of the connection ramps, King said.

Construction of those ramps is expected to begin later this year, DelDOT said. Bids for the contract are scheduled to be opened next month.

The ramps are the final piece of DelDOT's I-95 Improvement Program, which has cost about $135 million so far. That project, which began in the late 1990s, involved:

-Building an interchange at the Churchmans Road and Del. 7 intersection.

-Rebuilding the Churchmans Road bridge over I-95.

-Rehabilitating the ramps at I-95 and Del. 896.

-Adding a fifth lane along I-95 both northbound and southbound near Christiana Mall and Del. 141.

-Building high-speed E-ZPass lanes at the I-95 toll plaza in Newark, which is expected to be finished this summer.

Alex

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Re: Delaware
« Reply #119 on: February 26, 2011, 12:22:21 PM »

Delaware government: Sussex lawmakers agree to downsized highway expansion

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Prodded by Gov. Jack Markell's threat to kill the U.S. 113 project south of Milford, Sussex lawmakers have tentatively agreed to support a scaled-back highway expansion plan that would partially bypass Millsboro but keep improvements to the north and south on the existing alignment.

The consensus approach -- not put to a vote -- could include a two- or four-lane route that would connect U.S. 113 near Sussex Central High School and the Stockley Center to Del. 24 near Mountaire's poultry processing plant, east of Millsboro.

Legislators who attended a meeting on the project at DelDOT's Georgetown offices Wednesday said the connector would divert some east-west traffic and poultry trucks around Millsboro, reducing pressure for a far more costly and expansive highway relocation in that area.

DelDOT has spent about $14 million exploring an elaborate series of options along a 40-mile corridor between Milford and the Maryland line. After legislators began opposing those alternatives in the Millsboro area, Markell late last month threatened to pull the plug, saying lawmakers were wavering in their support of the project.

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Re: Delaware
« Reply #120 on: February 26, 2011, 12:27:37 PM »

Delaware roads: Elkton Road (Delaware 2 Business/896) will welcome more bicycles, fewer autos
Project expected done in Sept. '12

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EWARK -- After five months of construction along Elkton Road, the state transportation department this week announced the work on roughly two miles between Gravenor Lane and Delaware Avenue is expected to be completed by September of 2012.

To make room for bike lanes, the road will be trimmed to one lane of traffic in each direction with a left-turn lane on each side, DelDOT officials said at an informational session.

Mary Whistler, who lives in the Devon neighborhood, said although bike lanes will make the area safer for cyclists, reducing traffic to one lane in each direction will likely worsen traffic on Elkton Road and adjacent streets.

"I don't think, in this day and age, you take two lanes and turn them into one -- not when people are gonna start driving on parallel streets to stay away from it," Whistler said.

"Elkton Road is bad enough to begin with -- why make it smaller?" she asked.

DelDOT engineers took into account traffic flow and growth, saying one lane of traffic and a turn lane in each direction would be enough.

"That was something we looked at very hard and detailed in the planning process," said Mark Tudor, a DelDOT engineer.

Construction is set to be done in four phases, which may run concurrently. The project is still in phase one, which is expected to run through fall 2011, DelDOT officials said.

In the initial phase of development, crews are mainly working in the eastbound lanes and adjacent streets.

Having to relocate utilities such as gas, water lines, storm and sanitary sewer lines, and inclement weather are factors DelDOT officials said could delay the project's completion -- although crews have not yet run into any significant setbacks.

"There haven't been too many days lost to weather, thank goodness," Gary Laing, a DelDOT spokesman, said Monday.

With this particular project, DelDOT officials said, they have worked to tailor their approach to accommodate various segments of the community while getting the job done quickly.

"We're really dealing with a range of constituents," Laing said, adding UD students, Newark residents and business owners -- generally -- have different sets of concerns about the project.

However, easy access to businesses along Elkton Road is an overarching issue, and one Laing said the agency deals with in nearly every project along arterial routes.

For area businesses, the construction has meant more customers grumbling about navigating orange traffic barriers and cracked pavement.

However, for the most part, they're supportive of the project.

"Overall, what they're doing, I think, is good for the community. A little bit of inconvenience is OK," said Abe Santos, owner of Re Ink Advantage on Elkton Road.

Santos gets a panoramic view of the road work from his shop windows. Around the corner from Santos at the Apna Bazaar, owner Rohit Patel said traffic and detours now will pay dividends as the community around the road continues to develop later.

"They're making improvements so, I mean, I don't have any complaints," Patel said. "It's going to improve the community area, down the road -- long term -- it's going to benefit us."

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Re: Delaware
« Reply #121 on: February 28, 2011, 09:47:24 AM »

Hmmm... Is this north or south of Del. 4?  My favorite route to avoid that absurd toll at the Delaware/Maryland line is (southbound) either Del. 273 west or Del. 896 north to Del. 4; Del. 4 west to Del. 2; Del. 2/Md. 279 back to 95.

(Northbound, I avoid the Susquehanna toll as well by using US 1, unless I'm in a hurry.)
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Re: Delaware
« Reply #122 on: February 28, 2011, 10:57:15 AM »

Hmmm... Is this north or south of Del. 4?  My favorite route to avoid that absurd toll at the Delaware/Maryland line is (southbound) either Del. 273 west or Del. 896 north to Del. 4; Del. 4 west to Del. 2; Del. 2/Md. 279 back to 95.

(Northbound, I avoid the Susquehanna toll as well by using US 1, unless I'm in a hurry.)

It's north - this is all "in town" in Newark.
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Re: Delaware
« Reply #123 on: February 28, 2011, 09:19:50 PM »

Hmmm... Is this north or south of Del. 4?  My favorite route to avoid that absurd toll at the Delaware/Maryland line is (southbound) either Del. 273 west or Del. 896 north to Del. 4; Del. 4 west to Del. 2; Del. 2/Md. 279 back to 95.

(Northbound, I avoid the Susquehanna toll as well by using US 1, unless I'm in a hurry.)
Consider Chestnut Hill Rd. - not sure if it's faster, but I like the drive on a 2-lane better than the other major routes.

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Re: Delaware
« Reply #124 on: March 01, 2011, 01:45:24 PM »

Del. 1 project gets started
Bridge will tie into mall road

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Temporary lane closures on Del. 1 begin this evening as the Delaware Department of Transportation starts a nearly nine-month project to construct a new bridge into the Christiana Mall.

DelDOT said last week lane closures would be mostly at night as the 259-day project gets under way.

Some daytime lane closures may be necessary for short periods, according to DelDOT.

The new bridge will be south of the current Del. 1 overpass and tie into the mall's "ring road."

DelDOT awarded the $12.2 million construction contract to Mumford & Miller, a Middletown-based contractor.

To date, DelDOT has spent $135 million since the late 1990s on improvements to the busy I-95 and Del. 1 interchange.

Other projects include building an interchange at Churchmans Road and Del. 7 and adding a fifth lane northbound and southbound on I-95.

Later this year, more backups are expected at the interchange as DelDOT begins a multiyear project to build high-speed "flyover" ramps to connect southbound I-95 with southbound Del. 1 and northbound Del. 1 with northbound I-95.

DelDOT officials said last August the ramp project could take several years and cost $191 million.

DelDOT has said the ramps will relieve the rush hour and weekend backups at the current interchange that are the source of aggravation for suburban commuters and mall shoppers.

 


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