State hears public on Harbeson Road roundabout plan

Jillian Shea has responded to dozens of accidents in recent years.

Shea is not a paramedic, a firefighter or a tow truck driver. She lives on Johnson Road, next to the intersection of Harbeson Road (Route 5), Cool Spring Road and Hurdle Ditch Road. The intersection has been the site of many crashes over the years, and she is often the first to arrive at the scene.

“It’s scary,” she said outside her home Nov. 12. “We’ve lived here six years. There are a lot of accidents.”

Shea estimates there have been about 100 crashes since her family moved in. She attended a public workshop later in the afternoon Nov. 12 in Georgetown, where details were on display for a planned roundabout at the intersection, designed to improve safety for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.

Those in attendance viewed the plans, asked questions of a project consultant and state representatives, and pointed out concerns.

After viewing the designs, local resident Ellie Branca said much of the problem at the intersection involves drivers who speed or are careless, which is compounded by increasing traffic from nearby development.

“It’s like nobody understands with all the new homes,” Branca said. “There are two main roads. People are in a hurry. You can’t pass.”  

The project was planned in response to the high number of accidents at the intersection, according to the state. 

Work to build the roundabout is expected to begin in spring 2029 and take a construction season to complete, said Bryan Behrens, a group engineer for Delaware Department of Transportation. 

Bicycle and pedestrian accommodations are included in the project at the intersection, located south of Harbeson. Harbeson Road will be realigned to slow traffic leading up to the intersection. Johnson Road’s nearby intersection with Harbeson Road will be closed to keep vehicles from bypassing the roundabout.

The southern end of Cool Spring Road ends at Harbeson Road directly across from the north end of Hurdle Ditch Road. Turning lanes and stop signs with flashing lights on Cool Spring Road and Hurdle Ditch Road at their intersection with Harbeson Road have been added by the state. 

The intersection project was nominated as part of the 2016 Hazard Elimination Program due to the high frequency of angle crashes at the intersection.

Valerie Kowalski of project consultant Whitman Requardt and Associates said she has seen data showing 36 accidents since 2016, including one fatality in the last three years. Statistics kept by Delaware Homeland Security list 23 accidents in recent years, and Shea said there have been many others.     

Traffic has been increasing in the area of the intersection, according to DelDOT records. The number of vehicles passing the intersection on Harbeson Road increased from 3,808 daily trips in 2013 to 4,644 last year.

Traffic on Cool Spring Road near its intersection with Harbeson Road increased from 235 daily trips in 2018 to 1,000 last year.

While Shea said she appreciates the state’s efforts to improve safety at the intersection, she believes a four-way stop would be a better solution. There are only stop signs on Cool Spring and Hurdle Ditch roads. Shea said many tractor-trailers pass the intersection, so a complete stop would be safer for the large vehicles than a roundabout.  

The state had the option to place a traffic light, four-way stop signs or a roundabout at the intersection to improve safety, Behrens said.

A roundabout was chosen because it addresses the immediate safety concerns and it accommodates the anticipated increase in traffic at the intersection, based on projections of housing and other growth in the area, he said. Studies have found traffic roundabouts, in some circumstances, tend to be better options, Behrens said.

“We are picking roundabouts because they are inherently safer,” he said.

At the workshop, G.R. Johnson of Johnson Road also said he thought a simpler and cheaper solution could be found, such as realigning Harbeson Road to eliminate sharp angles at the intersection that contribute to the hazard.

“That’s a major expense,” Johnson said of the plan. “We all pay for it.”

No estimate for the project cost was available Nov. 12, but Behrens said the federal government is paying 80% of the cost, with the state covering the balance. 

Shea said she was glad that improvements will be made to the nearby intersection.

Five of her six children live at home, and she said she worries about them playing in their yard. She moved her parents to a house next door a few years ago and is also concerned about their safety.

 A couple of years ago, a car hit and damaged a sturdy fence that had recently been built in the yard. Early this summer, a delivery truck swerved to avoid a collision and hit a tall pine tree in the Shea family’s yard. The uprooted tree still rests on the ground, leaving a space in the row of pines that shield the family’s property from Harbeson Road.