Harmony Road Improvements Workshop Set For 4:30-7:30PM Tomorrow

DelDOT Harmony Road Improvements Workshop notice

Monday May 11, 2015 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM

The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) announces a public workshop for proposed improvements to the SR 273 and Harmony Road intersection. The workshop will be held on Monday, May 11 at the Gallaher Elementary School at 800 N. Brownleaf Road, Newark. The public is invited to attend any time between 4:30 pm and 7:30 pm. The purpose of this project is to improve the safety and operational function of the SR 273 corridor in the vicinity of Harmony Road and the I-95 Interchange, including the weave condition along the I-95 southbound off-ramp onto SR 273. A variety of alternatives of varying scope will be presented for public comment.

This location is accessible to persons having disabilities. Any person having special needs or requiring special aid, such as an interpreter for the hearing impaired, is requested to contact DelDOT by phone or mail one week in advance.

Interested persons are invited to express their views in writing, giving reasons for support of or in opposition to, the proposed project. Comments will be received during the workshop or can be mailed to DelDOT Public Relations, P.O. Box 778, Dover, DE 19903. When applicable, we offer the opportunity to fill out a questionnaire online which will automatically get emailed to Public Relations. For further information contact Public Relations at 1-800-652-5600 (in DE) or 302-760-2080 or write to the above address.

And more from (News Journal) robin brown ~ DelDOT tackles Ogletown traffic hazards

State transportation officials have set a Monday public workshop as they start to tackle a major road hazard in Ogletown, with 12 plans and some extreme ideas for solutions. Some of those ideas would dramatically alter the area, even eliminate some homes and businesses. Depending on how massive the final plan is, the project could cost tens of millions of dollars and take six years or more to finish. Like the problems, the plans focus on the Del. 273-Harmony Road intersection, but reach out into the surrounding area that covers thousands of homes and more than 450 businesses. “We’re hoping to get a large crowd at the workshop,” DelDOT spokesman Bud Freel said. The drop-in style workshop is 4:30-7:30 p.m. at Gallaher Elementary School, 800 N. Brownleaf Road, with overview presentations at 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.

........Harmony Road has become heavily used by commuters to Christiana Hospital and the Kirkwood Highway (Del.2), complicated by southbound I-95 off-ramp’s location snug to the Del. 273-Harmony Road intersection. “When it was designed, it met the needs of the area,” Vincent said. Now, he said, it’s a highcrash zone of heavy-volume, cross-merging traffic, identified as so dangerous a spot, improvements to reduce hazards there qualify for 90 percent federal funding instead of the normal 80 percent. In a distance of just 475 feet before the intersection, substantial traffic merges left from I-95’s exit ramp in a lane that becomes right-turn only for Harmony Road. At the same time, much of the heavy traffic along Del. 273 merges right to turn onto Harmony Road. There were 175 crashes at the intersection between 2011-14, with 31 involving injuries, DelDOT engineer Joseph A. Hofstee said. Most were rearenders and side-swipes, he said.

DelDOT’s traffic study found that, in the morning when traffic peaks at about 1,425 vehicles per hour, more than 70 percent of the traffic taking Harmony Road from Del. 273 is going to Christiana Hospital, along Ogletown-Stanton Road (Del. 4) or to Kirkwood Highway, Hofstee said. The broader area of the project includes the I-95 off-ramp’s crash-prone split for east and westbound Del. 273 and covers I-95’s entire Del. 273 interchange, running east of Chestnut Hill/Ogletown-Stanton Road (Del.4), the DelDOT officials said. Some of the most dramatic options in the plans are:

­ Eliminating right turns onto Harmony Road, making the road one-way or closing it at Del. 273,

­ Totally rebuilding I-95’s Del. 273 interchange or adding lights to slow westbound traffic from the Christiana area,

­ Creating a new I-95 exit that would tie into the dead end of Samoset Drive between the Bank of America and Christiana Hospital sites,

­ Widening Del. 273, which would require DelDOT to buy properties abutting the road in the densely populated area.

DelDOT, having recognized the area’s problems for many years, has made changes aimed to ease traffic, even testing closure of Harmony Road. In 2001, to slow traffic on Harmony Road, islands and other trafficcalming devices were added, which officials say reduced vehicles’ speed 17 percent. DelDOT also installed red-light cameras on Del. 273, cutting crashes with cars running red lights, and lengthened the stacking lane for left turns from westbound Del. 273 to South Gerald Drive opposite Harmony Road, pulling more of that traffic out of the cross-merge area earlier. Last year, DelDOT added a concrete median on Harmony Road, reducing cut-across traffic of motorists on northbound Harmony Road to a gas station on the southbound side, also reducing crashes and back-ups of traffic turning onto Harmony Road.