Newark post., 1922-04-12
270 Miles OF Roads
In 1922, Delaware's
Complete Program
New State Engineer Will
Eliminate Grade Cross
ings for Safety

miles of roads with the advent of
warm weather, thus bringing the
total to 270 miles, as was planned for
the whole Delaware system.
This total, though not comprising
all the State roads, is looked upon as
beginning and eventually means
that the State will seek to perfect"
every one of the 1888 miles of roads
in existence in the commonwealth,
thereby making every country lane
on a par with the best examples of
stone and concrete.
c. D. Buck, the new chief engineer
of roads, is busy assigning work for
different sections of the State. Of
great interest to Wilmington and visit
ing autoists is the reported settle
ment by which the dangerous crossing
at State Road is virtually eliminated
and that place soon will be fixed. A
bridge will be built there for the
Pennsylvania Railroad trains. This
makes the crossing free from further
fatal accidents. 1t is understood the
highway department will pay half for
the structure and the railroad the
remainder.
Mr.. Buck also announced recently
that the highway from Tybout's cor
ner to st. Georges is now being re-
built with concrete, but that the road
from St. Georges to Odessa will not
be touched this year. His depart
ment realizes that the present road is
in good shape. He also has been ad-
vised that New Castle county will
build several roads, one being from
st. Georges to Kirkwood
One of the greatest developments
in road work in Delaware is now be-
ing brought to the surface. That con-
Germs the attitude of the people on the
road proposition. When automobiles
first claimed attention of the State
authorities, there arose a cry for a
State system of highways. 1t was in
1911 that the General Assembly pass
ed an act looking to the improvement
of the State roads.
AS soon as that law was on the
books, two private features were
made, first the authorization of a cor
poration of private citizens to con-
struct a State road and also a pro-
vision that such private road must
be turned over to the State free of
cost. This was the beginning of the
Coleman du Pont boulevard. Since
that time, through fights that would
have discouraged men less faithful in
the trust of his neighbors, Mr.. du
Pont progressed with his boulevard,
and today all the roads in the State
are modelled from it.
Mr.. du Pont has continued to wish
that the highway bearing his name be
the best that money can buy. Figures
compiled at the Highway Department
indicate that up to the present T.
Coleman du Pont has spent more than
$3,000,000 for the boulevard, most of
which is completed and already in
use. The cost of the operation will
reach S3,500,000. The length of the
boulevard is over 100 miles and from
the Maryland line to Georgetown
General du Pont has 200 feet of right
of-way.
On each side of this road in Sussex
county he is improving it with land
scape gardening and also has a plant
for botany experiments for Delaware
University. The whole project is
showing what the general had in mind
when he fought to have the whole
highway from Maryland to Pennsyl-
vania garden spot. 1t was in the
first place his intention to make the
1OO-mile boulevard the greatest in
America.
1t is asserted repeatedly in Dover
that had he been permitted to have
had his say on the project, the road
would have cost him double or triple
the amount he has so far spent upon
it. For it is further contended that
the boulevard was meant as me-
mortal to himself eventually and on
which he would readily spend all the
money necessary to make it the lead
ing highway in the United States.
Even his enemies admit that Mr..
du Pont got raw deal from his State
in trying to give it a monument in
the form of a boulevard
The best way to show how the peo-
pie of Delaware have changed their
minds on roads has been given here
in the following instances:
Several months ago the highway
commissioners advertised that they
would be glad to hear delegations
from the different sections of Kent
county. The meeting was called for
the court house at Dover. This at once