Delaware’s Department of Transportation is planning an extensive infrastructure upgrade at an area just west of Sussex County’s beach communities.
The Henlopen Transportation Improvement District is one of four such districts in the state slated for a concentration of infrastructure improvements.
In a presentation before Sussex County Council Tuesday, DelDOT Secretary Jennifer Cohan proposed investing more than $283 million to the area over the next 25 years.
DelDOT projects more than 12,800 new houses and about 1.5 million square feet of commercial development in the district to coincide with the infrastructure buildout.
Cohan says the new connections, wider roads, new traffic signals, turn lanes and roundabouts will improve the area’s traffic conditions, despite expected future development. She references an A through F level of service scale measuring traffic conditions.
“If all of the development happens as we both anticipate it between now and 2045 and we do all of the improvements we’re recommending then you will have level of service D or better—and that’s at peak times, so things will absolutely get better,” said Cohan.
To move forward, the plan must be approved by county council and go through a public discussion process.
“Not everyone is going to be happy, because some of these projects affect properties and we’re going to have to work through that in a public process,” said DelDOT Director of Planning Drew Boyce.
The agency’s plan proposes the state pick up somewhere between 70-80% of the cost and developers pay the rest.
