Delaware officials kick off construction for Prime Hook Road

Dealing with coastal flooding is a part of life on much of the peninsula. One of the most problematic areas is Prime Hook Road,.

Clam Legates, a resident of Milton for 73 years says,”It would wash the beach out and the water would come over this road so deep that you could not drive your car through it. Even if you could you wouldn’t want to because you don’t salt water on your car.”

On Monday morning, Delaware officials and members of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife gathered to break ground on the construction of a 1.2 million dollar road project on prime hook road.

Barry Benton, the State Bridge Engineer for Delaware says, “We worked collaboratively with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife to develop a plan that was going to make a sustainable refuge, lower the water levels in the refuge but part of the plan was that they needed a bridge to exchange water from north of this road to south of this road.”

Benton  tells us the project includes building a 70 foot wide bridge that will go across a new channel being built by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While that channel is  being built, a temporary roadway has been constructed so residents can access Prime Hook Road. Officials tell us this project will be a win win for residents and tourism because it would restore the salt and fresh water vegetation of the marsh, which adds to the scenery to the Prime Hook Beach community.

Senator Tom Carper says,”If you have a beautiful wild life refuge and you don’t have the availability to get there and beautiful beaches and no way to get there…is it really an attraction?”

The project  is expected to be completed by mid July. While completion of the bridge will only take five months,  officials tell us that restoration of 3, 000 acres of marsh will take a few  years. However, they  say it’s a step in the right direction to rebuild after six years of destruction from floods and storms.