DelDOT is gauging the feasibility of a project that would help bicyclists get from the Jack A. Markell Trail on the Christina Riverfront to downtown Wilmington.
DelDOT engineers are assessing whether one busy intersection can be made easily passable by bike.
"The challenge we’re going to be looking at is just getting from one side of Martin Luther King to the other,” said DelDOT engineer Mark Luszcz.
James Wilson, director of Bike Delaware, says bike commuting in Wilmington lags behind cities like Newark, and that Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. is one of the biggest obstacles to biking in Wilmington.
“This issue that the department is working on solving, connecting arguably the city’s two main economic and commercial centers, there’s no bigger— I mean it’s a small project, but it’s a big issue,” he said.
Sen. Tom Carper supports DelDOT’s move to investigate the project. “I think it’s something that people have talked about forever. Let’s stop talking about it and do a good feasibility study— and find out, one, is it feasible, two, what would it cost. And if it costs a whole lot, what would it compete against in terms of vying for those dollars. ”
Carper’s office says the project could be eligible for federal grant money under a transportation infrastructure bill he is co-sponsoring.
DelDOT’s Luszcz says the feasibility study should take about nine months to complete.
The City of Wilmington released a newBike Planthis summer.
A previous version of this story misspelled DelDOT engineer Mark Luszcz's name.
