Public reviews Plantation Road second phase plans
Brooke Freeman remembers the sugar corn stand his two brothers ran at the corner of Plantation and Robinsonville roads near their generations-old family farm. Their grandmother lived next door on Robinsonville Road.
A carpenter by trade much of his life, Freeman, 74, spent nearly his whole life living on Robinsonville Road, within a mile of the intersection. Some nearby farmland gave way to housing developments in recent years, and the traffic has become congested, especially during the summer tourism season, he said.
“I’ve seen all the changes,” Freeman said April 15, as he looked over a series of photos spread out on easels and along tabletops. Superimposed on the photos were plans for the second phase of a project to widen and improve Plantation Road for vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists.
Freeman was among the people attending a public meeting held by the Delaware Department of Transportation to accept comments on the project planned between Robinsonville Road and Route 24.
Freeman, who built his own home farther down Plantation Road in 1978, certainly had his opinions. He said the project should be safer in some ways, but he disagreed with other aspects of the proposal. Freeman also said he does not think it would go far enough to alleviate traffic and it would cause congestion on both roads.
Pointing to a roundabout, shown at the intersection of Plantation and Robinsonville roads, he predicted it will not be easy to turn left from Robinsonville Road onto Plantation Road. He thought a three-way stop at the corner would be a better option.
Freeman said he believes the plan to keep the south end of Plantation Road one lane in each direction will bottleneck traffic. The end north of Robinsonville Road has already been widened to three driving lanes, two of them southbound.
The state took the site of the family corn stand, where a stormwater retention pond has been built for the Plantation Road project, Freeman said, pointing out the location on a map. The road is parallel to and west of Route 1.
The plan also includes a second roundabout at the entrances to the two Plantations communities. After residents of those communities insisted on saving two old farm silos along the road that have become landmarks, the state amended plans and will keep them in place, C.R. McLeod, director of communications for DelDOT, wrote in an email April 17.
Bryan Behrens, a group engineer for DelDOT, said the Plantation Road project was split into two phases seven years ago, with the first completed last year. It helped untangle Malfunction Junction near Five Points, which was particularly dangerous and a priority to solve, Behrens said.
The second phase is being designed this year, taking into account suggestions and comments from the April 15 meeting and any received by Friday, May 16. People can contact DelDOT by phone at 800-652-5600 or 302-760-2080; email dotpublic@delaware.gov; or mail to DelDOT Community Relations, P.O. Box 778, Dover, DE 19903.
Funding for the Plantation Road work has yet to be determined, but the state expects to complete design for the 1.5-mile project by the end of the year to be ready to move ahead when money is available, Behrens said. Land acquisition would probably take another two years. There are no anticipated start or completion dates for construction or cost estimates.
Details of the plans can be found online at deldot.gov/projects. Search for "Plantation Road."
Jim Bingham, who has lived in the Summercrest development off Plantation Road since moving there full time in 2018, said he likes the DelDOT plan, which would extend sidewalks along Plantation Road. Bingham said he likes to walk to restaurants and businesses on Route 1, and it would give him another safe route.
“I like all these improvements,” he said.
“I came as a skeptic, but now that I see it, I like it,” added Debbie Crawford, who moved from Long Island to the Woods Cove development off Plantation Road in 2017.
