The Committee of 100 | FYI Archives

Last fall then-Secretary of Transportation Anne Canby established the Tyler McConnell Bridge Working Group to advise the Department on the best transportation options for Route 141, from Route 100 to Alapocas Drive, including the Tyler McConnell Bridge. The Working Group includes 38 members representing civic, preservation, and environmental organizations; local institutions; elected and appointed government officials; and representatives from the business community. Beverley Baxter represents the Committee of 100; Tom Meyer is the designated alternate.

During its first four meetings, from September 21st to November 30th, the group received masses of information, to prepare members for evaluating choices, and established operating guidelines for the Working Group. At its first two meetings in 2001, the Working Group painfully hammered out its Mission, Vision, and Goals statements. During all of those discussions, it became evident that there was an outspoken core group that was determined to thwart any expanded capacity of the Tyler McConnell Bridge (TMB).

Although there is agreement within the group that the Tyler McConnell Bridge is a pinch point along Route 141 that impacts the entire surrounding area, and although there has been a clear understanding on the part of the State and New Castle County that, in approving the AstraZeneca and DuPont expansions, the Tyler McConnell Bridge lanes will be doubled, there is a outspoken contingent within the Greenville community which does not want any expansion of the bridge. These people want the bridge to continue as a pinch point so no more traffic or development can be accommodated, even if that jeopardizes AstraZeneca or DuPont.

There is disagreement within the community, though. Those residents who have seen increased traffic through their communities from commuters who take alternate routes to avoid the Tyler McConnell Bridge want relief. While most of the members of the Working Group are reasonable people who want a resolution that both protects the existing community and provides the needed additional capacity, there is a core group which is raising one issue after another in an attempt to stall the project (if they cannot stop it) until something (perhaps a slowing economy that cuts transportation funding) causes it to be sidetracked.

They have called for a new Environmental Impact Study (EIS), even though one has already been completed and at this point only an updated Environmental Assessment is required. A new EIS could delay the project for possibly two years. They have called for a new transportation study for Route 141 to run from US 202 to Kirkwood Highway, even though there have long been plans in place for each of the segments along Rt. 141. They have called for the expansion of pedestrian, bicycle, bus, and train commuting to the exclusion of bridge expansion, even though the consultants have shown that those modes alone won't solve the problem. They called for preserving the existing Tyler McConnell Bridge for its historic value when they thought that would thwart expansion. Now that designs show that the bridge can be preserved with either a sister bridge, a double decker, or a second crossover bridge, they call for tearing down the TMB and replacing it with a limited 3-lane bridge with a center lane going one way in the morning rush and the other way in the evening rush.

The Tyler McConnell Bridge Working Group is only one part of the public process as the Department of Transportation seeks input from the community. There will be a series of workshops to receive public input. Comments from those attending the Public Workshops become part of the public record and part of the decision-making process. The first such workshop will be held Thursday, February 22nd (see the enclosed flyer).

It is VERY IMPORTANT that reasonable people from the community and members of the business community go to the Public Workshop and record their comments. You can stop in any time between 4:00 and 8:00 p.m. and either fill out a comment card or speak to the court recorder. The groups who oppose expansion of capacity at the Tyler McConnell Bridge are very organized in mobilizing opposition. Working Group members have already seen flyers using misinformation and scare tactics to get people riled up.

If you are unable to drop by the Public Workshop, email, call, fax, or write to the consultants to put your position on the record. It all becomes part of the public record and will help to counter those disproportionately challenging any expansion no matter what the cost to economic development. Send your comments to:

Delaware's Air Quality Conformity Update

Although headlines have screamed the contrary, Delaware is not in noncompliance with the Clean Air Act Amendments requirements. However, Delaware does face an Air Quality Conformity Lapse beginning in July 2001 if we do not make some difficult decisions. Delaware meets all air quality standards except for ozone. The 1.79 ton per day (tpd) shortfall of Nitrous Oxide (NOX) emission reductions required for the NOX Budget by 2005 equates to approximately 179,000 trips per day on our State's roads. The total state-wide daily ridership on DART is approximately 30,000 trips per day. Encouraging more people to ride the bus just won't do it!

It will take a combination of measures to produce the reduction necessary to avoid a Conformity Lapse. And avoid it we must. A Conformity Lapse would result in Delaware's loss of federal dollars for almost all transportation projects and put some of our most important economic development projects at risk. Because the EPA has been successfully sued to require that it follow the legal requirements of the Clean Air Act Amend-ments, it has no option. As it has already done in several other areas across the country, it must cut off funds.

At the January 25th meeting of the Air Quality Mobile Source Committee, consultant VHB presented sixteen different measures that, in some sort of combination, could produce a plan that would be in conformity. Those measures include 55-mph speed limits on I-495 and Route 1, increased transit ridership, HOV lanes, trip-reduction ordinances, traffic flow improvements, vehicle restriction in Wilmington and Delaware towns, bicycle lanes, reducing extended idling of trucks, reducing cold-start emissions, and a salvage program for pre-1980 vehicles. The consultant is scheduled to provide the specific calculations which will enable the Committee to make specific recommendations at its next meeting.

More Bad Things From New Castle County

The Bad News from New Castle County just doesn't stop. Now Chris Roberts has introduced Ordinance No. 00-136 that adds another layer of traffic requirements to cluster developments. The proposed language is so open and vague-- "any traffic issues"-that it, again, proposes a subjective process and yet another hurdle.