A new state of the art DMV facility is coming to New Castle County in Fall 201
Governor Markell (D-Delaware) joined Department of Transportation Secretary Shalin Bhatt and other officials to break ground a new Department of Motor Vehicles facility on Route 13 near Delaware City, just south of the DART bus maintenance building. The $20 million dollar, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver Certified facility will feature 30 customer counter spots, 4 drive-through teller windows, and seven vehicle inspection lanes within a 42,000 square foot facility.
The new location will replace the New Castle DMV located at Churchmans & Airport Roads that's been operating since 1965 and now serves an average of 38,800 customers per month. Delaware DMV Director Jennifer Cohan says that facility can no longer handle the that volume of work.
“The neighborhoods have built up around it, there’s a Wawa down the street, there’s serious traffic mitigation issues so size is definitely an issue there, whether its parking or internal," said Cohen. "They’re waiting on anywhere between 600-1500 customers a day, and having that much traffic in and out of that facility has been very difficult.”
The increase size will allow for another innovation not available at the New Castle facility; self-service kiosks. The kiosks are already in the DMV's Wilmington, Dover, and Georgetown facilities and allow customers handle some business, such as driver’s license renewals without waiting in a customer assistance line.
The employees at the New Castle facility will be transferred to the new facility or to others in the greater Wilmington area. Cohan adds that while the new facility may not create many jobs now – it should down the road.
“We engineered this building for 10-year growth," said Cohan. "When we open the doors we probably will be adding a few, maybe seasonal folks. But overtime a need to add additional staff will probably be there, based on need and population growth.”
The building was originally intended to be a cookie cutter design of the Wilmington and Georgetown facilities, but those designs had to be altered in order to be a LEED Certified facility as well fit on the 24 acres plot provided by DelDOT.
"We had to [adjust] the building layout just a little bit different to accommodate this space, but the end product is going to be an excellent engineering feat," said Cohan. " We also wanted to make it a much more pleasing atmosphere for when you come in, for both our employees and our customers.”
The Delaware City DMV is expected to open in the Fall of 2014.