DelDOT gathering public input for Long Range Transportation Plan
DELAWARE – DelDOT is asking for the public’s input on its Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP).
Long Range Transportation Plan
The 20-year document is federally required, and helps state officials identify priorities to improve on. The plan also helps them make the framework for those policies to become possible.
“The discretion is kind of left to the states for how they want to design that plan,” said senior transportation planner for DelDOT, Jay Gerner. “It sort of forms the overall guidelines for how DelDOT ends up prioritizing our projects.”
Policy Over Projects
Gerner says the plan is based around firming up policies, rather than projects. Through that plan, nine goals are identified: safety, congestion management, state of good repair, economic development, equity in transportation, resiliency, sustainability, and environmental stewardship, innovation, customers service and engagement, and employee engagement.
“It’s sort of an internal guide, but we decided to use it to break out the sections of our long range plan this time around,” Gerner said. “We thought that that was a good way to organize how DelDOT does business, and its vision for the future.”
Gathering Input
Monday, Sussex County residents got the chance to hear about DelDOT’s goals and make their own suggestions at the Georgetown Public Library. Gerner said that not only is public input required for the LRTP, it’s also an incredibly valuable source of insight.
“We have the framework of how we’re going to devise the long range plan, but we want to know what the public’s concerns are, and what their observations are for long range transportation trends,” Gerner said. “We try to get some consensus out of the comments that are given, and we do our best to incorporate them into our long range visions.”
The workshops are also a chance for the public to learn about efforts that DelDOT already has in the works. That includes the state’s highway safety and pedestrian plans, and more.
“We’re bringing them all together, and informing the public about them to maybe give some more emphasis to those individuals plans,” Gerner said. “But we’re showing how all of those plans support the mission of DelDOT.”
Get Involved
If you want to provide your input, but missed the previous meetings, there are other chances to get involved.
The next in-person workshop will be held at Wilmington Public Library at 3 p.m. on April 30th. A virtual online meeting will conclude the series on May 21st at 4:30 p.m. Click here to join the virtual meeting.
