The Churchman’s Crossing Monitoring Committee (CXMC) was formed in 2022 to guide and fulfill the recommendations of the 2022 Churchman’s Crossing Plan Update. Led by WILMAPCO, DelDOT, the Delaware Transit Corporation (DTC), and the New Castle County Department of Land Use (NCC DLU), this work is being accomplished through a collaborative dialogue between the CXMC members, who represent a cross-section of stakeholders, including implementing agencies, elected officials, local civic and community leaders, business interests, and advocacy groups.

Since our last CXMC Summer newsletter, the CXMC has begun work for the 2023-2024 cycle. The CXMC will have three (3) meetings this cycle, as well as an annual public workshop that will be held in April 2024. The first meeting of the 2023-2024 cycle was held on October 25, 2023.

While the CXMC meetings are designed for the benefit and active involvement of the Committee members, the public is welcome to attend and provide comments at the end of each meeting.

The first CXMC meeting of the 2023-2024 cycle was held in-person at DelDOT’s Canal District Office on October 25, 2023 from 4-6 p.m. This meeting of the CXMC covered the following topics:

The main focuses of the meeting were to 1) recap the previous work of the CXMC, including an exercise to prioritize recommended improvements in the 2022 Plan Update that was conducted during the CXMC meetings in 2023, 2) to look ahead at the upcoming year and the anticipated work of the CXMC, and 3) the first of a series of Spotlight Topics: Microtransit in Churchman’s Crossing.

Materials from the October 25 meeting, including the PowerPoint presentation and a recording of the meeting can be found on the Churchman’s Crossing Plan Update website. 

To help achieve the primary goal of the CXMC - to advance the Churchman’s Crossing Plan Update recommendations - the project team introduced Spotlight Topics to the committee during the October 25th meeting. New Spotlight Topics will be included in future CXMC meetings and will highlight specific recommended projects to take a deeper dive into recommendations that were identified as priorities by the CXMC. Spotlight Topics will also help provide committee members with information that they can share with their communities.

At previous CXMC meetings, the Committee worked on establishing initial priorities of the transportation improvement projects recommended in the 2022 Churchman’s Crossing Plan Update. Microtransit in Churchman’s Crossing ranked number one in the prioritization exercise. To kick off the Spotlight Topics for the 2023-2024 cycle, Cathy Smith from the Delaware Transit Corporation (DTC) gave a presentation on Microtransit in Churchman’s Crossing.

Microtransit offers on-demand service that uses smaller vehicles to provide community circulation and connections to employment, retail, services, and transit hubs.

Cathy Smith presented on what Microtransit in Churchman's Crossing would look like and how it fits in with the larger DART Reimagined initiative. For more information, view the recording of the Microtransit in Churchman's Crossing Spotlight presentation.

Potential future Spotlight Topics on projects recommended in the 2022 Churchman’s Crossing Plan Update may include:

The DelDOT Projects Portal maps active projects in and around the Churchman’s Crossing area, and includes additional information about the planning, design, and construction of each project. Use the Project Portal map to view any active projects or select the links below to go directly to a specific project’s webpage.

DART is in the process of wrapping up a year-long statewide transit study, DART Reimagined: Reshaping DART Transit Services to Meet the Needs of Today and Beyond in an effort to:

Next Steps include:

Please continue to submit comments using the project email, info@dartreimagined.com. For more information, visit dartreimagined.com.

WILMAPCO, in partnership with NCC DLU, DelDOT, and DTC has initiated the Kirkwood Highway Land Use and Transportation Plan effort. The Kirkwood Highway Land Use and Transportation Plan will create an attractive and cohesive plan for the Kirkwood Highway (Route 2) corridor. The Plan will address near-term and long-range solutions and policies with an emphasis on strengthening alternative travel modes and options, travel demand management, integration of coordinated multimodal transportation and land use planning, and promoting more sustainable patterns of development while maintaining and enhancing existing neighborhood vitality.

WILMAPCO held the first public visioning workshop for the plan on December 11th, 2023. All materials from this workshop can be found the project webpage at wilmapco.org/Kirkwood/ 

A date for the second public visioning workshop will be announced soon, so stay tuned! To receive updates, sign up for the Kirkwood Highway Master Plan email list on the project webpage.

The Farmers’ Almanac forecasts “the BRRR is Back!” this winter. Winter weather should be making a comeback this year, with Delaware’s winter anticipated to be “frosty, flakey, and slushy.” 

DelDOT’s Transportation Management Center has you covered this winter with their interactive online mapping tool that shows real-time data on roadway weather conditions, weather advisories, snow accumulation, and even a snowplow tracker that allows you to follow DelDOT’s fleet of snowplows that operate throughout Delaware during snowstorms.

In addition to the real-time, interactive map, DelDOT’s Inclement Weather Travel Center provides real-time weather-related information, including travel and weather advisories across Delaware. Stay safe this winter and “know before you go” with these resources!

Image source: DelDOT