By Glenn Rolfe

MILLSBORO — Progress on the $130 million north Millsboro bypass continues, with the Delaware Department of Transportation revising the estimated completion date from late May 2025 to August of next year.

And, as the work continues on the two-lane connector of U.S. 113 and Del. 24 — designed to reduce congestion through town — trucks remain a significant topic.

“Trucks are the issue,” said Millsboro Town Councilman Bob McKee at an update meeting facilitated by Rep. Rich Collins, R-Millsboro, on Wednesday. “Chicken trucks. It is a necessary evil. I get that. But, in order to get nice restaurants and things like that, sidewalk cafés, you can’t do it with chicken trucks coming through.”

With a grade-separated intersection at U.S. 113 and Del. 20, the new bypass will start at U.S. 113 and extend east, bridging Fox Run Road, the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, Millsboro Pond and Gravel Hill Road.

It will hook up with Del. 24 west of the Mountaire Farms facility, the source of some of the truck traffic.

On Wednesday, several of the estimated 120 residents on hand urged a ban on tractor-trailers traveling Del. 24 through the downtown district. There is concern trucks coming from areas south of Millsboro might still opt for the route through town, regardless of the bypass.

Rep. Collins acknowledged the concern, saying, “This is a problem that we know some people have concerns with. And we will deal with it.”

The “no truck” issue is being examined by the Transportation Department, according to George Pierce, an area engineer for the agency.

“It is now brought forth to our Traffic Section, (which) is looking into that,” he said. “It’s enforcement. Legally, it takes a resolution.

“Are trucks still going to come through town? Yes. Are some people going to go to that light and choose to take a left and go through Millsboro? Yes. We can’t stop that,” he continued. “It takes people time to learn. It will work and do nothing but improve in time, when what we call ‘driver habit’ takes over for people to use this route. We are taking a bulk of the traffic — other than people that want to go (into) Millsboro — outside of town. A large majority of the trucks are just naturally going to go out there (to the bypass).”

Mr. Pierce added that DelDOT has studied the area extensively.

“We spent years modeling this. We do real-time data counts. We follow traffic patterns. We project 30 years. ... Given the constraints of how can we impact people the least, how can we be sensitive to the environment and have the least impact, how can we solve the problem, this was the best solution that was found.”

The bypass will feature two 12-foot lanes in each direction, with 10-foot shoulders and a 12-foot shared-use path over the entire length.

Meanwhile, the initial completion date has been changed.

“The whole goal with this was to get the project wrapped up by Memorial Day 2025. Unfortunately, it does look like we’re going to push it to about this time next year,” Mr. Pierce said Wednesday. “A lot of that depends on what we can get done this winter. Last winter was definitely not the best winter we’ve had in a long time.”

In response to questions about a sound barrier at Del. 20, near the large neighborhood of Plantation Lakes, the engineer said the project did not qualify.

For his part, Rep. Collins said he was skeptical of the plan at first. But he’s now calling for patience with some temporary inconvenience, plus offered support to DelDOT and the contractor, R.E. Pierson Construction Co., for their emphasis on safety.

“They’ve got to do this right. If they don’t get this right now, it will be another 10 or 15 years before we get anything better than this,” the representative said.

Construction calls for a series of upcoming road closures that will impact Del. 20, Sheep Pen Road, Fox Run Road, Hollyville Road, Del. 30 and U.S. 113.

For overnight beam placement on the bridge at the U.S. 113/Del. 20 interchange, there will be intermittent closures into the fall.

Detailed road closure notices will be issued two weeks in advance, Mr. Pierce said.

Also looming on the Transportation Department’s radar is a widening project of U.S. 113 from Millsboro Pond to south of Lowe’s. It will entail cutting into the median in an effort to eliminate many of the crossings.

That initiative is in the preliminary stage, Mr. Pierce said.