Dover/Kent County MPO

MPO Council approves FY 2016-2019 TIP

CAMDEN — Council members for the Dover/Kent County Metropolitan Planning Organization on Wednesday unanimously approved the MPO’s FY 2016-2019 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).

The TIP represents the first three-to-four years of the MPO’s long-range Metropolitan Transportation Plan. Projects in the TIP are ones for which the Delaware Department of Transportation wants to secure federal funding. The TIP also serves as a budgetary guide for how much money will be spent on each project. The MPO held a public comment period for the TIP between March 30 and April 30.

MPO Council member Drew Boyce said the unanimous MPO Council vote was an indication that “projects that are moving forward are consistent with the council’s vision for Kent County.”

“Moving forward, a lot of big infrastructure projects are happening, which is great for Kent County,” Boyce said. “And we’re going to continue to support projects that move the county in the right direction with safety, mobility and as much as we can, this economic component.”

MPO Chairman Brad Eaby said the MPO did its part on Wednesday in the planning process.
“It was a constructive exercise that we went through last time,” Eaby said, referring to delays that the council went through last year before approving the FY 2015-2018 TIP. “But I think it made the process stronger in the long run, and made the parties work together even more cohesively in the future.”

There are many projects in the FY 2016-2019 TIP, including ones that have been on the docket for some time. Some of those projects have already started, such as the West Dover Connector and the grade-separated intersection at Rt. 1 and Thompsonville Road, and are scheduled to continue in the just-approved TIP.

“We are finally starting to see the result of all that hard work in the actual moving of dirt and laying concrete and getting these projects in the ground, because as long and hard as we work on them there’s really no public benefit until they’re done.”

Some highlight projects in the FY 2016-2018 TIP include:

• Continued construction of the West Dover Connector and the Route 1/Thompsonville Road grade-separated intersection

• Start of construction for the improvements to Route 1/Little Heaven and the Route 1/South Frederica grade-separated intersections

• Safety improvements along Glenwood Avenue in Smyrna

• Construction of a roundabout at Route 10/Route 15

Design projects include:

• U.S. 13 widening (from the Puncheon Run connector to Lochmeath Way)

• Kenton Road (Route 8 to Walker Road)

• Crawford Carroll Road extension

• Loockerman Street/Forest Street improvements