Five Points group questions removal of Route 16 light

Traffic engineer DJ Hughes, a member of the Five Points Working Group, thinks removing the traffic light at Route 16 and Route 1 is a big mistake. 

“We’d be adding more free-flow traffic and taking away the gaps in traffic,” said Hughes, an associate with the firm Davis, Bowen and Friedel. “That’s the last light from I-95 to Five Points that’s creating any gaps in traffic for southbound Route 1.”

The Department of Transportation plans to construct an overpass at the Milton intersection beginning in summer 2021. Scheduled after that project are other major improvements, including an overpass at Cave Neck Road and significant changes to the traffic pattern in the area of Minos Conaway Road and the Nassau bridge. Hughes said DelDOT needs to reprioritize the projects and keep the Route 16 light until the other two projects are complete.

“I think we’re making a mistake if we don’t reprioritize all three projects,” he said. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t. [DelDOT] already reprioritized the DE Turf project and moved that ahead of just about every other project. It can be done if there’s a will.”

There was previously a traffic light in Little Heaven, south of Dover, but that project was completed in March and traffic was diverted to a new overpass.

Hughes raised his concerns at the working group meeting April 29 at Beacon Middle School. It was the group’s first meeting of the second phase, where it will help guide DelDOT in implementing 78 recommendations. DelDOT says 36 of the recommendations will be completed or in progress by the end of 2019, including short-term improvements at four Route 1 crossovers between Milton and Lewes – Cave Neck Road, Route 5, Hudson Road/Steamboat Landing Road, and Oyster Rocks Road/Eagle Crest Road. Lanes will be restricted at each crossover to provide safer, more efficient flow of traffic. Matt Buckley, a traffic consultant with Baltimore-based firm WRA, said all four projects could be in construction by fall or early winter.

While those changes are welcome, Hughes continued to urge DelDOT to reconsider the timeline for overpasses on Route 1.

Buckley said crash data suggests the most incidents between Route 5 and Five Points have occurred at Route 16. Between 2012 and April 2019, he said, there have been 76 crashes. Cave Neck Road ranks second with 71.

Hughes argued Cave Neck Road featured more angle collisions, which he says are the most dangerous type of crashes. And when the total crashes at all of the crossovers included in the Minos Conaway Road project are combined, Hughes said, it surpasses Route 16’s statistics.

Buckley said decisions like this aren’t easy.

“This isn’t a black-or-white answer. These are tough decisions that require a lot of engineering judgment,” he said. “At the end of the day, our job was to balance safety with operations.”

Drew Boyce, DelDOT’s director of planning, said the Route 16 project will move forward as planned. He said the project is already in the final design phase and right of way acquisition is underway.

“Construction is imminent,” he said. “Transferring that money to other projects isn’t going to advance them at all.”

Buckley said the claim that the Route 16 light creates gaps in traffic closer to Five Points isn’t supported by the traffic models and statistics. “Down past Hudson Road they become more free-flowing again,” he said. “We found the signal had very little to do with traffic gaps.”

Hughes disagreed again. 

Members of the public urged DelDOT staff to experience the roads instead of relying on statistics and models. “Get in your cars any day, Monday through Monday, and come to our intersections and experience the T intersections onto high-speed Route 1,” said Lewes resident George Dellinger.

Sterling Crossing resident Kathleen Baker said DelDOT needs to get it right. “This is about people’s lives,” she said.

Fellow Five Points group member Bob Fischer also voiced concern over the removal of the light. He wondered how far cars will back up once there isn’t a light at Route 16 to slow down and break up the steady flow of traffic. “You might have five- or 10-mile backups,” he said. “Then you won’t have to worry about crashes.”