P&Z: Improving traffic flow a top priority in Sussex

Increasing capacity on Sussex County’s roads has surfaced as a top priority as officials rewrite the county’s comprehensive land-use plan.

During a May 22 workshop, Planning and Zoning Commissioner Marty Ross was impassioned as he requested that state transportation planners address the issue to ensure it was included as the No. 1 goal in the mobility chapter of the plan.

In previous plans, DelDOT officials have written the mobility chapter with little input from county officials. That's not the case for the 2018 plan.

Delaware Department of Transportation staff and consultants AECOM assist county officials in writing the plan's mobility chapter. They led a discussion about transportation issues during the workshop. Capacity is defined as the maximum traffic flow obtainable on a road using all available lanes, usually expressed as the number of vehicles on the road each day.

Ross said the plan should highlight the capacity problem, which leads to traffic congestion, delays during peak travel times and long waits at traffic signals, especially in the beach region.

He said because the county is mostly rural, the vast majority of residents rely on their own vehicles for transportation. “And all commerce moves by truck. They all contribute to capacity issues,” he said.

“The problem is so great that we need to stare it in the eye. I can identify the roads and needs for you,” Ross told transportation officials. “And we don’t need to be ambiguous about it. We need increased capacity or we'll die economically.”

He said his list contains about $1 billion in road improvements to increase capacity on the county's major east-west and north-south routes. In addition, he said, major improvements are required at the county's failing intersections.

He said plans have been on the books to improve roads, but they have never been implemented. “There has not been much done to deal with increased capacity in Sussex County in my lifetime,” Ross said. “There have been plans for it, but it just didn’t get done,” he said.

“The status quo is not working today so what will it be when we add 100,000 to 150,000 more people?” Ross asked.

Ross said specific goals will be required within the plan to address capacity problems.

Commission Chairman Bob Wheatley said the devil will be in the details. “We are at a high level right now, but we have to start somewhere. It will take a combination of things to solve the problem, but that is not our work today. We are identifying problems and in the vision stage right now,” he said. “We are laying a foundation for the future.”

“It’s a 50-year-old problem with a lot of rust on it,” Ross said. “We will need a blow torch and not WD-40.”

Getting traffic moving

The commission agreed with Ross that road capacity should have top priority in the plan's transportation chapter.

“It’s where we need to spend the bulk of our time,” said Commissioner Keller Hopkins. “And it’s what concerns the public, too, as they are sitting in traffic. First and foremost, we need to get traffic moving out there; it's a serious problem.”

Commissioner Kim Hoey Stevenson said she would support creation of a working group to triage the county’s road system to come up with innovative solutions. “We want people to get from point A to point B easier, faster and safer, but we keep running into the same issues,” she said.

“We are still doing everything the same way and a lot has not been crossed off the 2008 plan objectives. We need to step up our game,” Hoey Stevenson said, adding that she would like to see Sussex County as a leader in the state for transportation solutions.

Beyond the obvious roads with capacity issues such as Route 1 – with an average of 65,000 vehicles per day – commissioners agreed that other roads such as Route 404/9 may have issues in the near future as Maryland completes dualization of the road up to the Delaware line.

Ross said, alternative means of transportation – including mass transit – can help, but they are not the solution.

“We need increased capacity; bikes and buses are not going to fix the issues. We need to determine how to address capacity issues now that we’ve had going on for 50 years. Why would be choose to maintain an already failed transportation system?” Ross asked. “We can’t land use our way into better roads.”

Ross had a final suggestion for DelDOT officials. “Quit studying and start doing. The roads must have a PhD in something because they have been studied enough,” he said.