States Team Up to Fix Beaver Dam Road

States team up to fix Beaver Dam Road
Legislative prodding leads to PennDOT-DelDOT Pact

For Immediate Release: June 14
Contact Patrick Jackson at 744-4046

A longtime highway headache for drivers along the Delaware-Pennsylvania state line is getting fixed thanks to a joint agreement between the Delaware and Pennsylvania Transportation departments.

Under the deal, PennDOT is taking title to Beaver Dam Road and will reconstruct a badly deteriorated section of the road in Pennsylvania while DelDOT has agreed to assume maintenance responsibility for the road.

“This has been a real headache for motorists up here for a long time,” said Sen. Michael Katz, D-Centerville, who has been working on getting the road fixed since he took office last year. “This has been a complicated issue because there were questions about ownership and responsibility for the road, but I’m grateful to the cooperation of our highway departments, my legislative colleagues in Pennsylvania, Rep. Dennis E. Williams here in Delaware and governors Jack Markell and Ed Rendell in helping me get this problem resolved.”

Because of bureaucratic confusion over who was responsible for the road, no serious work had been done to it for years, Katz and Williams said, and it had become a deeply potholed hazard to motorists.

“It’s a road that has destroyed a lot of rims and caused a lot of flat tires,” Williams said. “We’ve been lucky, though, that no one ever lost control and went into the creek that borders the road.”

When the road was built during the 1800s it was located entirely in Pennsylvania because of a surveying error that set the Delaware-Pennsylvania line too far south. When the state lines were resurveyed and corrected in the 1900s, the ends of the road were in Delaware, but a section of the road looped into the Keystone State.

Katz reached out to Williams, whose district also contains the road, and to their legislative colleagues over the state line, Pennsylvania Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Chester, and State Rep. Stephen Barrar, R-Boothwyn, whose help was necessary to persuade PennDOT to take control of the road from Chadds Ford Township.

“PennDOT’s agreement to take over responsibility of Beaver Dam Road is a major step forward,” said Senator Pileggi. “This is a necessary step to finally remedy a precarious traffic situation for the citizens of Pennsylvania and Delaware. “

“Part of the problem is that it was an orphan road,” said PennDOT District Executive Les Toaso. “No one claimed responsibility for it. It’s something we’ve been talking about with DelDOT and Chadds Ford Township for years, but we hadn’t been able to get anywhere until now ... But when this is done, people will have a much safer road.”

Toaso said his agency will spend between $185,000 and $200,000 to rebuild the badly deteriorated section of the road in Pennsylvania. The project is expected to take about two weeks. DelDOT will be responsible for maintenance chores, such as snow plowing the road, one the repairs are done.

Delaware Transportation Secretary Carolann Wicks praised Katz and her staff for their efforts in pushing for the agreement.

“The resolution of this situation is great news,” Wick said “I really appreciate the work of Sen. Katz and my DelDOT staff who helped formulate this agreement. Residents of Delaware and Pennsylvania will now be served with an improved Beaver Dam Road as well as proper maintenance and care in the future.”
Barrar praised Katz and DelDOT officials for their willingness to solve the problem.

“A lot of ideas were thrown out to solve this and the senator and DelDOT deserve a lot of credit because they were willing to work cooperatively with us and with PennDOT to find the best solution to this problem,” Barrar said. “It’ll be a real joy to get this work done so motorists will have a safe, smooth road again.”

Katz and Williams also credited their Pennsylvania colleagues for being willing to work with them to solve the problem.

“They recognized the importance of settling all the squabbling about whose road it was and getting the problem solved,” Katz said. “This is a great example of working not only across the aisle, but across state lines to resolve a dangerous and potentially deadly situation.”