301 project could bring $705 million for Delaware economy

After decades of acrimony and fighting over countless proposals, construction of the new U.S. 301 highway is about to begin.

While construction workers and some retailers are looking forward to the work and the spark of growth the roadway will bring to southern New Castle County, there are many others who worry what will happen to the Middletown area.

“They’ve been talking about this for years, so it’s exciting to see what’s going to come of it," said Ashley Games, a lifelong Middletown resident. "But also a little worrisome, too, about the impact it’s going to have."

The $470 million highway project will filter money into business and households in as soon as a few weeks, supporting housing developments in the long-term, and propping up a Delaware construction industry in the short-term.

US 301 toll road project gets financial green light

Delaware’s economic activity could be boosted by as much as 1.5 times the actual construction costs, said George Sharpley, economist at the Delaware Department of Labor, translating into $705 million for Delaware’s businesses and residences.

Still, the largest impact on the economy will be from time savings for motorists passing through the booming area after the highway is built, Sharpley said. Since Middletown started to grow exponentially, so too has traffic congestion.

"We (look forward) to how much easier it's going to be to get through the city," said Mayor Kenneth L. Branner of Middletown. "We have been planning this for decades."

On Friday, Gov. Jack Markell, Delaware's members of Congress, and state and local officials met at the U.S. 301 weigh station near Middletown for a groundbreaking ceremony.

Fly over the proposed U.S. 301 expansion

Transportation officials have said the new toll roadway, which will feature two lanes in both directions and connect Del. 1 with the Maryland state line, will divert heavy truck traffic around Middletown, and ease overall congestion on area highways, such as the current U.S. 301, and Del. 896.

Middletown’s population increased from 5.5 percent to 19,910 between 2010 to 2014, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and multiple developments outside of town and near the location of the new highway could bring thousands more to the area during the coming years.

The highway is expected to open in December 2018.

On Wednesday, the Delaware Department of Transportation announced that two contractors could move ahead on construction of highway segments directly north and south of Middletown. The green light was given to contractors for the initial two segments of the project in December.

$89 million in US 301 contracts move forward

Only a spur road veering off of the new expressway and interchange connections to Del. 1 and U.S. 13 have yet to be given the green light to move forward.

Dan Myers, project manager for California-based Tutor Perini Corp. said his first workers could begin turning over dirt with excavators to level the ground in a few weeks. Tutor Perini crews will build the northernmost section of the mainline before its interchange with Del. 1.

“We’re just getting started with (the hiring) process," Myers said.

The highway project could create a few thousand construction jobs over its three-year life span, said James Maravelias, president of the Delaware Building and Construction Trades Council, an AFL-CIO affiliated union.

He expects hundreds of those new workers to be hired during the next few months.

“You’re looking at a lot of manpower right off the get go,” he said. “This is a good boost for Delaware.”

In addition to construction workers, Maravelias said any take-out or delivery restaurant in the area will likely receive a surge of calls during workers half-hour lunch breaks.

“The guy that has a delivery (food) service is going to do pretty well,” he said.

John Casey, executive vice president of the Delaware Contractors Association, said the “majority” of construction dollars during a highway project such as this one are spent in-state, at restaurants, shops, or on housing. The project will also provide a boost to the state government’s coffers through increases in income taxes revenues. Delaware charges a graduated income tax that ranges from 2.2 to 6.6 percent depending on income level.

Construction companies should be able to find many willing workers, Casey said, as the industry never fully rebounded in Delaware from its pre-recession levels.

“I don’t think it will be a major problem for employers to find workers,” he said.

There were 28,900 jobs in construction, mining, or logging in Delaware in December 2005, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figure dropped to 19,100 in December 2009 and steadily grew to 22,300 last December, according to the most recent data available.

Syngin Hall of New Castle has seen those economic ups and downs as a 13-year Delaware construction veteran, and a member of the the Delaware Building and Construction Trades Council for the past six years.

He hopes to secure not just any job building the new expressway, but one that will last for its entire three-year period. In construction, he said, work is not always consistent.

Hall worked for Tutor Perini in 2012 and 2013 on the interchange project between Del. 1 and I-95 in Christiana. Since then, jobs have been sporadic, he said. During slow construction periods, it’s sometimes the lucky who can find work, he said.

“I have worked, but not steadily since that job," Hall said. “I’m hoping to get a slice of the pie."

Hall and other construction workers were at their union hall in Newark Thursday, pencils in hand, taking a class about how to property lift equipment and materials with cranes. The instructor pointed to a geometric equation on a white board, describing the optimal angles at which a sling with two lifting points should be set.

Union laborers who end up securing a job building the new U.S. 301 will earn the prevailing wage, said Curtis Linton, apprenticeship coordinator at the Delaware Building and Construction Trades Council, at roughly $23-per-hour. Union dues amount to $20 every month, he said.

Residents speak out

The start of construction ends years of debate over various proposals for an expressway through southern New Castle County to link Middletown and its growing outer suburbs with Del. 1.

One of the initial plans called for the highway to run directly through New Covenant Church, which lies at the corner of Del. 896 and Jamison Corner Road, said Scott Burkley, pastor of the church.

After telling congregants and community members of the plan, they began protesting to DelDOT, he said, which ultimately killed that particular proposal.

“All we did was tell the people who are using the building what was happening and they rallied around us,” he said.

Burkley said he opens the doors of his church to any outside group to use as a gathering place, as long as they are working for the “community good,” such as the local Girl Scouts troop, he said.

“In any week during the school year, there’s about 700 people coming in and out of the building,” he said.

Now, with finalized plans calling for the highway to pass directly next to the church's property, Burkley sees it as an opportunity.  Not only will it help to grow the economy, he said, but also his congregation, which has plans to build a new 350-seat church on the property. The new building will be nearly six times larger than the current one.

“There will be an interchange right down the road and it will help make us more accessible,” he said. “It has been providential, so when the construction comes in, we’re established and ready.”

Darren Muñoz is a 22-year-old bartender at the Jager House Pub, which lies on the current U.S. 301 about five miles north of the core of Middletown. He spent most of his childhood in the Middletown area, and is nostalgic about what he sees as the safe and pleasant nature of outlying suburbs.  Still, economic growth is necessary for his job, he said, and the highway could bring in new customers.

Something needs to be done over the long-term about Middletown traffic, he said. During the evening rush-hour, congestion on U.S. 301 makes for 30 minutes travel times between central Middletown and his bar.

“It’s all the tractor-trailers,” he said. "The highway needs to happen."

Games is also conflicted about the highway. Like many in the area, she says highway construction as symbolic of the larger growth that has been occurring in Middletown for the past two decades.

The growth, she said, has come at the expense of small businesses. A new highway will only encourage more people  to shop at large centers that lie off of Main State, such as the Wal-Mart on U.S. 301, she said.

"It’s going to drown out the small business in Middletown,” she said, “but traffic-wise, it’s going to be a benefit.”

Branner, who has been Middletown's mayor for more than two decades, says the town's growth up until now has been how the municipality has been able to sustain operations without raising taxes. Although he said he wants to maintain the character in the center of town, he has overseen the annexation of its outlying areas during the past decades.

“We have had aggressive annexations,” he said. “But we’re not going to change the way the old town looks.”

But change is inevitable, Muñoz said. The new highway, although a necessity, will definitely alter the character of the town.

“Middletown is going to turn into Middle City,” he said.

Contact Karl Baker at (302) 324-2329 or kbaker@delawareonline.com.