DelDOT extends bike trail near Lewes
A lawsuit by local homeowners is pending, but that is not stopping state transportation officials from building a planned Junction and Breakwater Trail extension connecting Gills Neck Road and Freeman Highway.
The extension will pass along the borders of the Showfield and Breakwater Estates communities in Lewes to connect the two roads.
Two Breakwater Estates residents filed a lawsuit in March 2013 to halt construction of the trail along the boundary of their property. The lawsuit says there is no legal easement for this section of the extension.
“The proposed 15-foot wide public access easement was never granted or recorded,” the lawsuit alleges. The case is pending in Sussex County Superior Court.
A section of the paved trail along Freeman Highway, starting at Gills Neck Road adjacent to the Freeman Highway bridge, has been built and is open for use.
Delaware Department of Transportation spokesman Geoff Sundstrom said the remaining section of the trail will be built, through the proposed Showfield development and up to the properties of the residents who filed the lawsuit. The trail will be also be constructed from Gills Neck Road to the plaintiff's property line, leaving incomplete a 700-foot section on property owned by the people who filed the suit.
“We have to leave that section undone until it's resolved by the court,” Sundstrom said.
Work is scheduled to be completed before start of the summer season. “We will urge people who use that part of the trail to turn around and backtrack,” Sundstrom said.
The extension is part of a master plan to develop a trail loop connecting resort towns and eventually intersecting with the proposed Georgetown-to-Lewes rail trail.
State planners have been working on the extension for several years in an effort to get bicycle and pedestrian traffic off Gills Neck Road. Although not part of the Junction and Breakwater Trail, the road is heavily used by cyclists, runners and walkers as a link to connect Lewes and Rehoboth Beach.
Residents along Gills Neck Road say because the narrow road has a blind S-curve and no shoulders, it presents safety hazards.
The plaintiffs, Steven Napiecek and Robin Zoltek, wanted all work stopped on the project until the matter could be adjudicated.
