Lane closures on Kirkwood Highway near the V.A. Hospital

The left lane of both eastbound and westbound Kirkwood Highway near the Veterans Administration Hospital will be closed beginning Friday. The Delaware Department of Transportation informs motorists that the inside lane in both directions will be closed for about three weeks as a new deck is put on a bridge on Kirkwood Highway just east of the entrance to the V.A. Hospital. Later phases of the deck replacement will result in right lane closures at the bridge.

The bridge work is part of the Kirkwood Highway Reconstruction Project now underway in Elsmere. Traffic on both eastbound and westbound Kirkwood Highway will use the right-hand lane only during this phase of the project. Barrels will be put on both sides of the roadway to shift all traffic to the right-hand lane. The main entrance to the V.A. Hospital will remain open and accessible to traffic during the lane closures.

The lane closures will provide the contractor on the reconstruction project, Diamond Materials, with the space required to safely remove the bridge's existing deck and to pour a new deck. For more information tune into WTMC 1380-AM, visit the Department's website www.deldot.net, or call the DelDOT External Affairs Office at 800-652-5600.

Meanwhile, DelDOT's new philosophy of listening and responding to citizens remains in action in the 900 block of Kirkwood Highway, where work continues to reconstruct the 900 block so that parking on the eastbound shoulder can be permanently re-established, as requested by Elsmere residents and town officials. For about the next three weeks, Diamond Materials will work to shift the median and lanes in the 900 block slightly to the north. This will provide the space required for parking on the shoulder when both eastbound lanes of Kirkwood Highway in that area are re-opened.

The total two-mile Kirkwood Highway reconstruction project, from Route 141 to Route 100, features traffic signal improvements; extensive landscaping in the medians and along sidewalks; the addition of turning lanes, curbing and sidewalks; the removal of some crossovers; and the rotomilling and complete resurfacing with hot mix (asphalt) pavement of Kirkwood Highway.

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