The Committee of 100 | Meeting Notes

I-95 is Closing! Naamans is open. Churchman's Crossing is nearing completion. The smart lights are coming. 202 is part way. 141 will happen. The express busses are scheduled. Fairplay Rail Station is on track. The Cauffiel Connector is happening.

Many of the transportation improvements which The Committee of 100 has, for years, been calling for are now being planned, in design, under construction, or nearing completion. The sheer amount of work which has been and is being done to our transportation system in Delaware is unprecedented.

Moving forward on transportation construction projects has been complicated by the requirements of the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) and the provisions, first, in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), and, then, in the Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21^st Century (TEA-21). Federal mandates have required that we plan and design our transportation systems in a different way.

When Anne Canby became Secretary of Transportation, we were not paying attention to these requirements and faced heavy federal sanctions if we didn't. She had the unenviable task of pulling us--kicking and screaming--into the new world of transportation air quality counts and multimodal requirements. She was also faced with a transportation system which was not only ten years behind in providing needed capacity, but also, way below standard in maintenance of our existing infrastructure. While we were adding "SOV," "multimodal," and "transportation enhancements" to our vocabulary, she was developing a program for rehabilitation of bridges and roadways.

Secretary Canby will bring us up to date on the state of transportation in Delaware today, including the status of key transportation projects -- and how to survive I-95's closing.