Centreville Streetscape Improvements

Kennett Pike (SR 52), which connects Pennsylvania to the greater Wilmington, DE, area, serves as Centreville’s main street and includes numerous shops, restaurants, and businesses. For nearly two decades, residents and commuters requested that traffic flow improvements be made to the historic area, although local authorities were unsuccessful in reaching agreement between various groups and stakeholders. The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) selected JMT to perform a planning study to identify these key issues and develop a Phase I final design to address necessary improvements, while maintaining current economic vitality.

JMT began by conducting an extensive outreach program aimed at identifying transportation and community issues. Separate interviews were conducted with citizen groups and key stakeholders before bringing the groups together and conveying the many common goals. This provided a consensus upon which JMT developed concepts for improvements that included a Complete Streets approach to the village. The plans incorporated a variety of traffic calming elements aimed at reducing speeds, improving pedestrian safety, providing dedicated bike facilities, adding safety measures to bus stops, and promoting economic development through streetscape enhancements.

During this process, several local elected officials recognized the importance of the improvements to the region and promoted the project within the state, which enabled DelDOT to obtain federal stimulus funding for the first phase of improvements. The requirements of the stimulus funding necessitated the advertisement of construction documents in fewer than nine months. JMT engaged DelDOT to jointly develop an innovative and atypical project schedule and milestones with accelerated submittal requirements and dates.

With the help of the community, JMT successfully delivered this project on time and under budget while balancing the needs of the various parties involved, benefiting both the residential and business owners. This project received a 2013 Honor Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC)/Delaware as a result of its innovative and unique approach to consensus-building and project delivery.