By Brian Gilliland

LEWES — Shanté Hastings, DelDOT’s deputy secretary and chief engineer, knows what it is to sit in Sussex County traffic, because she’s been doing it as a resident of Long Neck for about 20 years now.

“I’ve seen the growth and I would say the county population has doubled since 2000 or so, and there’s a balance to be struck,” Mrs. Hastings said. “But my aspect is safety. We’re hoping to drive down the numbers of crashes in the system.”

To that end, and with the volume of work now going on within Sussex County, Mrs. Hastings said commutes or other travel may take longer, but it’s not any less safe than it used to be.

“People tend to think every light should be green as they approach, and because it’s a rural area people think we have tons of capacity” or space to widen roads. However, she explained, homes in Sussex County are, in places, built right up to the existing, narrow roads, so adding capacity can be a quagmire of permits, rights of way and other legal concerns.

Meanwhile, the myriad projects have sparked public concerns during almost every county council meeting in 2024, each town hall session held by Cape Henlopen Public Schools in the run-up to the recently defeated referendum as well as several planning and zoning and board of adjustments meetings in Sussex. Some projects, like the proposed Angola Road Royal Farms, have sparked public outrage about the traffic without having scheduled business before government or public.

Royal Farms will host an information session on the location at the Lewes Public Library on Tuesday, April 9, from 4-6 p.m. to discuss the issue and gather input.

“We aren’t experiencing pure gridlock. This isn’t Los Angeles where it takes hours and hours to get anywhere, but it may take a bit longer,” Mrs. Hastings said. “Long Neck Road is functioning much better with more capacity.”

The tipping points, she said, were intersections.

“Currently we are beginning a study to take all of this into consideration. We’ve talked about it pretty openly and have hosted public meetings,” Ms. Hastings said. She did not provide a publish date for the proposed study.

Intersections, she said, generally don’t have the problems the narrow rural roads do, and so there’s space to expand. Sometimes paying attention to the intersections is enough, sometimes other steps need to be taken.

“We’re calling it DART reimagined, but it’s more micro-transit opportunities. We’re bringing a more urban model to the more rural areas of the county. We’re looking at better scheduling, when we have the money and resources to expand service, we can make it happen,” Mrs. Hastings said.

Adapting the model, which is based on frequent use and expanded availability of rides, will take some time, she said.

“We’re requiring developers to install transit stops, because people want transit to be super convenient. The urban model is more efficient, but we need to determine how to adapt and use it,” she explained.

Mrs. Hastings also points to the labor market, and said contractors are having issues retaining people.

“Everyone is having workforce issues. The projects being delivered by contractors, I would say 90 percent of them won the bid based on the low-bid process,” she said.

So in evaluating contracts, DelDOT, like lots of government entities, looks at the cheapest possible price, rather than ability to deliver on time, ability to retain employees for the duration of the project or overall work quality when reviewing bids.

Adjusting this process is a political issue, as in the agency must follow the rules as set forth by the elected government, and in the case of DelDOT, that’s the state.

“Every contractor with us is evaluated, and we can do things about a low evaluation score,” Mrs. Hastings said.

In extreme cases, she explained, the state is able to recover damages from a contractor that didn’t meet the terms of the contract during quarterly evaluation meetings.

“What we really want is for you to arrive at your destination safely,” Mrs. Hastings said. “Buckle up, be patient and join our campaign toward zero deaths.”