Sussex admin calls for action on road projects

Sussex County Administrator Todd Lawson urged state transportation officials to move ahead with road improvement projects that have failed to progress to design or construction.

Lawson made his comments Jan. 27 at a meeting of the Five Points Working Group, held in the library of Cape Henlopen High School. Much of the meeting was an update on the status of Delaware Department of Transportation construction projects near the Five Points area.

Lawson expressed frustration over the lack of progress on plans to improve Route 1 crossings at Eagle Crest and Hudson roads north of Lewes, and an extension of Mulberry Knoll Road to connect to Route 9. The projects have been local priorities since the Five Points group was formed in 2018, he said.

“This group talked about these two improvements at Hudson Road and Eagle Crest years ago; it was identified as one of the most important safety concerns that we had in the area,” Lawson said.

“So I am concerned to hear that we are going to continue [to] wait and to monitor until the Route 16 overpass is done,” Lawson added. “I’m not an engineer. I don’t know how much these things cost. I don’t think it's a very expensive fix between these two. It was one of the highest safety priorities we had that came out of this work, and that was years ago. And I continue to see accidents, especially at the Hudson crossing of Route 1. And those accidents are not good accidents; they are bad accidents because they are high speed.”

Mark Lusczcz, acting chief engineer for DelDOT’s Division of Transportation Solutions, said he did not have the estimates, but he believes they would cost several million dollars. 

Lusczcz agreed the safety concerns were not trivial.

“The more we wait, the more concern I have,” Lawson said.

The Mulberry Knoll Road extension, from Cedar Grove Road to Route 9 at Old Vine Boulevard, is another important project to relieve congestion from ongoing development. 

“That was the No. 1 proposal coming out of Sussex County when this committee started,” Lawson said. “Ten years later ... we are just going through the design.”

“I, personally, would like to see that given the highest priority,” said Sussex County Council Vice President John Rieley. “No. 1, you may or may not know, that parcel of land is under heavy development pressure. And No. 2, it gives us another alternative route to Route 1.”  

Luczcz said the environmental study, which would precede planning, design and construction, is scheduled for 2028. Once design begins, a preliminary timeline for constriction can be projected, he said.

“We’re trying to not announce construction schedules like we used to because we have been wrong so many times in the past,” he said. “There are so many things that can affect this. There are so many things outside our control.”

The Five Points Working Group advocates for state road construction projects. 

“We have more needs than we have money for,” Luczcz said.

He said most of the projects have federal funding, which complicates the process, and environmental reviews take time.

“I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that ... there is just a tremendous amount of investment taking place here,” said Andrew Bing, a consultant who coordinates Five Points meetings.

“There’s no question that certain things could move faster,” Bing said. “Everyone’s got their projects that they wish could go faster. These projects take a long time.”