Backers of the proposed Kent County Regional Sports Complex now see a way forward for the project after it stalled earlier this year.
Supporters, DelDOT officials and lawmakers met Monday to discuss the possibility of building a privately-built exit off of Route 1 that would lead to the complex. The right-in, right-out route could be built before an interchange south of Frederica, which is currently well down on DelDOT’s infrastructure project priority list. The exit would eventually be connected to the interchange once it’s built.
Drew Boyce, the director of planning for DelDOT, says the plan is possible.
“Right now we’re at the concept level,” Boyce said, “but from the concept level, a 10,000-foot view, we really don’t see any fatal flaws with the ideas they’ve presented.”
Supporters of the sports complex project expressed frustration for months after DelDOT delayed the construction of the interchange, despite lobbying the agency heavily for it.
Gregg Moore of the Becker Morgan Group -- who serves as the architect and engineer of the sports facility for the Greater Kent Committee -- says the organization grew tired of waiting for DelDOT to build the interchange.
“It was clear to the Greater Kent Committee that we were wasting our time trying to fight for an interchange that wasn’t scheduled nor getting any traction with DelDOT,” Moore said.
The organizers of the $23 million sports complex project say that if all the permitting and other necessary steps go smoothly, the facility could be open for use by 2016.
Attendees of the Kent County Economic Summit earlier this month voted the sports complex project as having the most economic potential of any proposal in the future.