The Delaware Department of Transportation Monday announced plans to spend $4 billion on infrastructure.
DelDOT Secretary Jennifer Cohan called the announcement “epic” and includes “long overdue investments” in some areas.
The dollar amount would be spent from fiscal 2020 to 2025 in all three counties, with $1.9 billion to be spent in New Castle County and more than $900 million in Sussex County.
The $4 billion includes work in fiscal 2019 and $3.2 billion in succeeding years.
Notable projects include the widening of Route 1 north and south from Route 273 to the Roth Bridge in New Castle County, the US 13 Camden Widening project in Kent County, and the SR 1 Minos Conaway Grade Separated Intersection in Sussex County.
This comes in addition to major projects that include work on Route 1 south of Dover to the Delaware beaches and the Route 301 toll road project in the Middletown area that is in the final stages of construction.
Gov. John Carney framed the spending in terms of economic development, citing the need to efficiently move goods and people. He also cited projects that will draw young people to the state.
The work includes getting people to the state ’s beaches as well as biking and hiking trails.
Cohan also mentioned SEPTA train station projects in Newark and Claymont. Work is underway on the Newark station at the University of Delaware STAR campus that will also serve Amtrak passengers.
Work would include the Interstate 95 viaduct project. The projects would rebuild a large portion of the interstate in Wilmington over a two-year period.
Also announced were winners of DelDOT innovation awards that included a mobile device app for the department’s paratransit bus service, a paving process that will result in $20 million in savings and a DelDOT crew winning national honors in an operating rodeo in Colorado.
The event was held at the DelDOT M&O Resource Center in Dover. The center works to come up with innovations in projects and even apps for mobile devices.
The department has been under fire for delays in construction of the Route 141-I-95 project in New Castle County after the discovery of asbestos in structures and other problems. The interstate system in the state is 50 years old and in need of massive investments.
Rapid population growth in Coastal Sussex County has also led to traffic congestion.
The state is not alone in seeing projected traffic volumes blow past earlier estimates.
DELDOT is also seeing higher bids and fewer bidders for some projects, a possible outgrowth of a shortage of construction workers.
