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New Road Master Plan aims to preserve rural character

Traffic calming, natural buffers, shared path among ideas
November 30, 2018

With several projects in the pipeline, New Road will have a new look over the next five to 10 years. Through a robust planning effort, the Historic Lewes Scenic Byway committee is hoping to ensure the change is something everyone can live with.

The committee, which includes officials from the Delaware Department of Transportation, the City of Lewes and Sussex County, is drafting a master plan that will coordinate planning so New Road develops in an orderly manner.

The group held a public workshop Nov. 27 at Cape Henlopen High School to obtain feedback on a rough draft of the New Road Master Plan. The main goal is safety, but the plan also aims to maintain the road’s existing rural character through creative design.

“It’s not an easy project to do, but it is a really commendable effort,” said Jim Klein, a consultant hired to lead the effort. “It’s all about how we work together to achieve the best vision you could hope for.”

Major features include possible roundabouts at Nassau Road, Lynn Road and Old Orchard Road, a meandering shared-use path for bicyclists and pedestrians running the entire length of New Road, and traffic-calming elements to slow down vehicles. 

Already planned for New Road are a 292-unit subdivision on the 134-acre Groome Church property and a 90-unit townhouse project on the 34-acre Brittingham property. Several other projects are proposed for Old Orchard Road and the Nassau area.

The master plan aims to retain diverse open space using setbacks, floodplain management and other approaches, Klein said.

One way to accomplish those goals, he said, is to encourage cluster development to preserve as much open space as possible.

In terms of transportation, splitter islands, slightly changing directions and incorporating roundabouts could be employed to slow traffic down and maintain the rural nature of the road, said Jeff Greene of Delaware Greenways.

“We can design a road to manage traffic speed, if you let us, but it means we have to use these techniques, and we have to design them in such a way that they make a vehicle slow down to go through them,” he said. “If we don’t, and we just put things there, maybe small and inoffensive, then we’re just whistling Dixie.”

A major part of New Road’s future is replacing the bridge over Canary Creek. DelDOT Director of Community Relations C.R. McLeod said the Old Orchard Road realignment at Savannah Road must be completed before work can begin on the bridge.

He expects construction on the bridge to be at least four years away. 

The plan calls for a shared-use path along the entire length of New Road from Nassau to Fourth Street with four possible connections to the Lewes-to-Georgetown Trail at Arkansas Court and Old Orchard Road, and along Black Hog Gut and Canary Creek. 

The group will take comments and suggestions received from the public, and refine the draft plan concepts and principles at its February 2019 meeting. A draft will be presented to the City of Lewes and Sussex County in March 2019.

The plan would not be implemented all at one time. Klein said there will be DelDOT-sponsored projects, developer-funded projects and then pieces in between that will need funding to be completed.

Developers of the Groome and Brittingham properties have already discussed road improvements with the byway committee and DelDOT, and have incorporated those improvements in their plan.

The group will continue to accept public comment on the draft ahead of its February meeting to refine the plan. More information, including presentations, can be found at http://www.lardnerklein.com/new-road-corridor-master-plan.html.

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