Even as local civic leaders expressed support for a plan to bypass U.S. 113 to the east of Millsboro, Frankford and Dagsboro, environmental roadblocks persist that could keep such a road from ever being built.
Talking to a 25-member committee working to recommend a preferred alternative to avert future congestion issues on the major north-south route, state transportation officials said Tuesday that environmental regulatory agencies still must weigh in on whether building a limited access highway east of U.S. 113 would be too harmful to the environment there.
Reviews for the area east of the current highway, where wetlands are prominent, were expected to begin yesterday. They could end with agencies taking the six eastern bypass options off the table, officials said at the Millsboro-South working group’s May 29 meeting — their 16th meeting over three years at Millsboro Fire Hall.
Delaware Department of Transportation Officials hoped aloud Tuesday that that would not happen.
“The question is going to be what can they live with?” Monroe Hite, DelDOT’s Route 113 project director, said Tuesday. “While they are concerned with environmental impacts, they see the bigger picture.”
The area of particular concern is the Stockley Nature Preserve, north of Millsboro. All eastern bypass options pass through the environmentally sensitive area near the routes’ starting points, and three effectively split the preservation.
In fact, officials would be forced to rework all roadway alternatives if environmental agencies refuse to issue permits there because of proposed connections with Route 24 to relieve congestion on the major east-west route.
Hite addressed the question Tuesday of why officials hadn’t already received consent on the alternatives from the necessary agencies, calling the project he has led since its inception a “work in progress.”
“The process doesn’t work that way,” he added.
Josh Thompson, the watershed coordinator for the Center for the Inland Bays, said Tuesday that, despite the result of the reviews, the center could not support an eastern bypass option because of the potentially extensive environmental impacts.
“From the center’s standpoint, an east bypass is not an option,” Thompson said. “It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see the environmental impacts. I can’t go along with any eastern bypass option. The center cannot back anybody on that decision.”
The bypass options include the aforementioned six to the east — the longest and seemingly most popular of which would pick up just north of Millsboro and drop cars off south of Frankford — as well as three to the west and a plan to convert the local route into a limited access highway.
The “limited access” highway would resemble Route 1 north of Dover with entrances and exits and local service roads running alongside. If a bypass selection is recommended, the road beyond the bypass will be converted to limited access where it again meets with U.S. 113 and continues south.
Frankford, Dagsboro and Millsboro town officials led the charge in denouncing the limited-access plan Tuesday, claiming that option would split their towns in half, hurting area businesses and stymieing future westward growth.
Despite connections to Routes 24 and 26, they added, the on-alignment plan would not adequately address congestion issues on major east-west, beach-feeding, evacuation routes. Concerns with traffic problems on those routes highlighted a public meeting regarding the study two weeks ago in Dagsboro.
“I can’t see any kind of ‘on-alignment’ working,” said Faye Lingo, Millsboro town manager. “An east (bypass) offers so many more advantages. I think east is your best shot with east-west traffic.”
Dagsboro Mayor Wayne Baker and Frankford Town Council President Greg Johnson agreed.
Working group member and Selbyville Town Manager Gary Taylor said he was in favor of a limited access plan rather than a proposed western bypass around Selbyville but did not support the on-alignment idea just north.
Jim Bennett, a local farmer and member of the working group, advocated a “modified” on-alignment alternative Tuesday. On such a road without traffic lights, similar to one proposed in Georgetown, drivers could enter and exit businesses on the right side of the road but only cross using interchanges.
Officials scheduled another meeting for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 12, before their final meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 27. Both will be held at Millsboro Fire Hall and a working group recommendation is expected at the latter.
DelDOT hopes to have its final recommendation by early fall to Carolann Wicks, its secretary, who must sign off on any final decision. Officials have continually noted, though, that any decision is meant to solve long-term issues and it is likely that nothing will be built for decades.