Work to ease Middletown gridlock can't come soon enough for drivers

The widening of Del. 299 from Del. 1 into Middletown can't be completed soon enough for Pam Edwards and thousands of commuters who use that road every day.

Edwards lives in Sudlersville, Maryland, and makes the 20-mile drive a few times a week for her job in Middletown. She said the drive between downtown and Del. 1 is brutal most days.

"Sometimes it takes me longer to get through town than it takes me to get to town," she said. "It takes 15 minutes to get from Odessa to (U.S.) 301 on a good day, and sometimes that is much worse."

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Since starting work in Middletown about 18 months ago, Edwards had heard rumors that the main artery into and out of town was going to be widened. But she was told that had been talked about long before she started making the trek to Middletown. 

It's no longer just talk. Delaware Department of Transportation officials wrapped up right-of-way plans for the project last summer and are finalizing the design. 

Since Middletown began experiencing major growth a decade ago, the Del. 299 corridor has experienced more and more congestion during the morning and afternoon peak hours. 

The population in Middletown has been growing as fast or faster than anywhere else in Delaware, which is the main reason the widening project was added to the DelDOT list of projects.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Middletown’s population increased 5.5 percent to 19,910 between 2010 and 2014. The population rose to 20,420 in 2016 and is nearing the 21,000 mark now, with no end in sight.

Middletown has seen a big share of the growth in New Castle County the past few years as the number of households in the southern part of the county is predicted to double to about 41,700 over the next 25 years. By 2030, the Delaware Population Consortium predicts the Middletown-Odessa area will have the largest population in the state with nearly 113,000 people.

This project will address the traffic congestion, as well as safety and pedestrian/bicycle infrastructure improvements on the east-west road that starts in Maryland and runs through Middletown and Odessa.

DelDOT project manager Tom Brooks said a kick-off meeting with the real estate section is being planned right now before they start going door-to-door for right-of-way acquisitions in January. 

"We did meet with a lot of the property owners over the summer just to talk to them about what is going on," Brooks said. "A lot of them were commercial and developer, but there were a few individuals that we met with. They know it’s coming."

The scope of the $20 million project includes improvements from Catherine Street east through the Del. 1 interchange. Proposed improvements include:

• Reconstructing Del. 299 from Catherine Street to Del. 1.
• Keeping Catherine Street to Cleaver Farm Road two lanes, but adding a center turn lane.
• Increasing Cleaver Farm Road to Del. 1 to four lanes (two in each direction) with a center raised concrete or grass median.
• Constructing a combination of a 5-foot sidewalk and 10-foot multi-use paths through the entire length of the project.

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The project is in the design stage with the construction scheduled to start in fall 2019 and last two years. Brooks said a lane in each direction would remain open for the duration of the construction.

For Edwards, that's a stretch of time she isn't looking forward to, but she knows the improvements will make traveling on the main artery much better in the end.

"It will be a headache when construction is going on," she said. "But when it is done, it will make it so much better for thousands of people who take that road each day."

Middletown's town manager Morris Deputy agrees.

"It's a necessary evil to get what we need," he said. "This is finally getting the attention it deserves. It can't get done soon enough."

According to DelDOT, the average daily traffic volume on the road in the project area was 24,700 in 2016. That is expected to more than double to 53,200 by 2040.

Much of that traffic is because many of Middletown's schools are accessed from Del. 299 and streets that feed into the roadway. 

According to the Appoquinimink School District, the project has the potential of impacting Middletown High School, Brick Mill Elementary, Silver Lake Elementary, Lewis L. Redding Elementary, Everett-Meredith Elementary, Spring Meadow Early Childhood Center and Old State Elementary in Townsend.

“While we haven’t confirmed details with DelDOT yet, SR299 is a major road through the heart of our district," said Appoquinimink Superintendent Matt Burrows. "That means it will create challenges. Student safety will be our first priority as we look at the possibility of establishing alternate routes for buses and students. As we have in the past, we’re going to work with DelDOT and our community to make this process as smooth as possible.”

On again, off again, on again

Brooks said discussions about the project started in the early 2000s when the town developed the Middletown Transportation Plan. He said the project was added to the DelDOT Capital Transportation Plan in 2005, but because of the recession, it lost its place until now.

The first workshop was conducted in 2015, but nothing has been done until this summer when DelDOT talked to about 30 business owners to bring them up to speed on right-of-way acquisitions.

Brooks said that while the phone isn't ringing off the hook, people are starting to ask about the project. 

At last month's Middletown mayor and Town Council meeting, one woman asked what the plans are to alleviate increased traffic into town and on Main and Broad streets. Mayor Kenneth Branner Jr. explained the DelDOT project and said an interconnection from Dove Run Boulevard through the Highlands to Lake Street is also in the planning stage.

Like Edwards, Danielle Cummins commutes from Maryland (Warwick) to her job in Middletown. She's also made the drive to Middletown for many years to drop her daughter off at St. Anne's Episcopal School.

She says the traffic congestion has changed the way she does business in town.

"I live in Maryland but function in Middletown, and I try to avoid taking that way at all costs," said Cummins, who in the past two years started taking back roads to get to St. Anne's. "Traffic is definitely a downside. I'm looking forward to not sitting on Main Street forever." 

Brooks said the sidewalks and multi-use paths were things the community asked for in previous meetings. Officials talked about connecting Middletown High School and Wawa as well as the sidewalks going all the way up to Brick Mill Road to the elementary school.

"This will connect the town all the way out to SR299," he said. 

Brooks said a protected pedestrian walk across the Del. 1 interchange was a late add-on to the project because of an observation made by Brooks and other DelDOT officials who use the park and ride at the interchange.

"Several of us use the park and ride and have noticed people cutting across walking," Brooks said. "Because of that, we’re going to add pedestrian facilities across the interchange at Route 1 and 299. We drive it, we saw it and thought something needed to be done."

That separated area on the bridge will in the future connect with a multi-use path project being planned in Odessa.

Brooks said the project's final design will be completed in October, and between now and October, DelDOT will meet with utility companies and the town of Middletown about utility relocations.

Reach Jerry Smith at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JerrySmithTNJ.