House mover John Davidson remembers Harbeson before it was "at the beach," as it is often referred to now in real estate ads for communities sprouting around the town. But these days, Harbeson being near the beach may conjure up images of traffic congestion on Route 1 on a busy August Saturday rather than laughing children romping in the sand.
Despite efforts of fire police and Delaware State Police to keep traffic moving at the Route 9 and Route 5 intersection, the situation lately is particularly dicey. Sorely needing widening for turning lanes, the intersection is feeling the brunt of lots of factors, not all of them bad.
Morning traffic heading east on 9 creates a steady stream that backs up for miles when the Harbeson light and left-turning vehicles stop the flow. That really gets interesting when work-bound employees, many headed to the Allen Harim poultry processing plant on Route 5, join forces with school-bound traffic.
Chicken-plant workers, on the clock, have to get to work. They resort to creating their own turning lane on the wide shoulder and ride it to the intersection where they can turn right toward the plant entrance.
Practical, but dangerous. Chicken trucks that ease into the shoulder to block shoulder-runners may improve safety, but it's hardly a long-term solution.
The whole scenario took on Frankenstein proportions recently because of sewer work. While that doesn't sound like a source of good news, it does have a silver lining for Harbeson. The folks at Allen Harim, feeling pressure to be law-abiding and good corporate neighbors, are working toward routing their treated wastewater out of the upper reaches of Beaverdam Creek and into a processing facility at Milton to be built by Artesian, and an existing Artesian facility in nearby Trails of Beaverdam Creek. That wastewater has been a smelly Harbeson problem for years.
When that problem is history, we can all say Halleluia.
As for the intersection, DelDOT is well aware of the need for improvements. Public pressure should be sustained there too, to encourage a resolution sooner rather than later.
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Editorials are considered and written by Cape Gazette Editorial Board members, including Publisher Chris Rausch, Editor Jen Ellingsworth, News Editor Nick Roth and reporters Ron MacArthur and Chris Flood.
