DelDOT reports progress on local roads

By Sam Harvey
Staff Reporter

The Route 26 “SR 26 Mainline” project — temporarily shoved off the drawing board after last year’s Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) budget shocker — is back on track. DelDOT has announced a public workshop for Monday, March 27, from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Roxana Volunteer Fire Hall, to present preliminary plans.

It’s not as timely a topic in the off-season, when traffic loads are at their lightest (although increasingly reaching suburban levels of use, year-round). But then, actual construction is still a long way out.

By “preliminary” plans, DelDOT is referring to “20-percent plans.” The department’s tentative timeline indicates finalized construction plans this time next year. Construction of SR 26 Mainline is still a few years away (start slated for 2009).

Officials predict rapid progress, once the actual work begins. However, as DelDOT spokesman Darrel Cole reminded those in attendance at a meeting on March 13, the department still doesn’t have all of its funding lined up for SR 26 Mainline.

In better news, Cole said the department could continue working toward final designs — and into real estate purchases — even without all monies in hand. “We don’t need funding locked in before rights-of-way acquisitions,” he said.

That side of DelDOT projects is always in flux anyway, Cole explained, with rising costs and the prospect that raw land might be developed before DelDOT has a chance to negotiate for its purchase.

“That adds a whole new wrinkle,” he pointed out. “So we’re trying to get as far as we can with that. There is some right-of-way for the Mainline project where we don’t need the final design — for instance, if we have to buy the property, we have to buy the property.”

As Cole pointed out, negotiations for thin strips of right-of-way are in some ways more complicated than outright purchases.

One way or another, DelDOT will need to complete improvements along the local roads portion of the project before work begins on Route 26 itself. Local roads will become a major detour during construction on Route 26.

DelDOT does have funding locked in for that portion of the project, Cole noted. “Local Roads is moving forward, ahead of Mainline 26,” he said. “Plans are finalized, and rights-of-way acquisition has begun.”

Local Roads will beef up: (1) Burbage Road, from Route 17 to Windmill Road, (2) Windmill Road, between Route 26 to Central Avenue, and (3) Beaver Dam Road, between Central Avenue and Muddy Neck Road (Kent Avenue).

DelDOT has more than 200 property acquisitions to make along those routes, Cole said, but he expects the department to have worked through them by fall of 2007. He said they were hoping to begin construction along local roads in spring of 2008.

Once the department gets to Route 26 itself, residents can look for a finished product similar to how the roadway exists between the Assawoman Canal and Route 1 (the Bethany section), with sidewalks at least into Millville.

Other slated features include bike lanes and a center, shared left-turn lane. DelDOT engineers originally presented preliminary designs showing an intermittent center lane, but public support for a continuous lane, westward to Clarksville, led them to reconfigure.

Residents and local elected officials also prompted the department to install interim improvements, at Central Avenue (a new left-turn lane) and West Avenue (a new traffic light), last year. The finished product is slated to realign at: (1) Central and Route 26, and (2) the Y-intersection west of Clarksville, with intersection improvements at Irons Lane, Route 17, Whites Neck Road, Windmill Road, Clubhouse Road, Grants Avenue and Woodland Avenue.

For more information, visit the Web site at www.deldot.gov, then click “Projects” and look for SR 26. Or, plan to attend the public workshop on Monday, March 27, at the Roxana Volunteer Fire Hall (4 to 7 p.m.).