DELAWARE:Delaware Memorial Bridge Improvements

No toll increase has been decided but the local press reports a likely a raise of 50% in the $2 car toll to $3 and an increase in the commercial vehicle tolls from $2.50 to $3.00/axle, to increase revenues $15m/yr. The senior finance official at DRBA, Brad Hopkins, was quoted as saying that without a toll increase the capital program could not be funded.

Like most established toll authorities DRBA has ongoing programs to modernize and improve its facilities. The shipping channel to the ports of Philadelphia and Wilmington under the Memorial bridge is being deepened by 1.5m (5') to 13.7m (45') to accommodate larger container ships. But with heavier behemoths rolling by, DRBA thinks it wise to beef up the fender system protecting the bridge towers from ship-hits. A much smaller vessel than those now in prospect did a worrying amount of damage a decade ago. HNTB is currently designing the beefed up protection, which is estimated to cost $40m. Federal highway funds may pay some of the cost, but a major portion will come from DRBA revenues.

$6.5m is being spent on a new toll system including electronic tolling at the 13-lane plaza on the New Castle DE side of the bridge. Tolling is currently south, or by the bridge itself, west-bound only. The system integration contract was awarded in Oct 99 to Tolltex, a small firm in Lafayette, NJ. The original plan had been to complete the installation of a new manual system first by April 2001 (the existing system is a 1991 vintage), which included a full test of the ETC capability, and then to add the electronic toll (ET) collection capability in the fall of 2001 to all 13 toll lanes.

The DRBA has now reconsidered its timing – in part because of indications that officials in Trenton and Dover want to respond more quickly to public eagerness for E-ZPass. DRBA is now attempting to get some ETC capability, probably only two lanes initially, installed by this November with the entire system to be operational by Jun 01. This compressed schedule could be difficult given the track record elsewhere of unforeseen difficulties in introducing ET.

DRBA has applied for full membership in the Inter-Agency Group, which will insure interoperability (E-Z Pass) and reciprocity with the other regional toll collection agencies. A Letter of Proposal for the operation of the customer service center has been forwarded to prospective providers, and a contract for this service should be completed by May, The Authority intends to operate the walk-in tag store and customer service front office at the Bridge plaza/office complex at New Castle DE and to contract for the back office operation.

Vacation peaks

The bridge runs 90k veh/day on average (both directions) but it has peaks of 130k. Esposito says there is a loyal corps of commuters, perhaps 4,000, plus some local business customers who will get ET-tags just for the bridge, but they hardly justify going to electronic tolling. Peaks of traffic are heavily vacation-related – at weekends more than weekdays, and on long weekends, especially Thanksgiving and summertime.

The Director of Bridge Operations, says the Delaware Memorial is not a commuter bridge in that only 5% of the annual 16m vehicles are true commuters (about 2500 vehicles a day): “The typical user is probably a couple from say Connecticut driving down to Baltimore to visit their son and his wife.” Approximately 45k veh/day pass through the 13-lane plaza, which easily handles the four lanes of Bridge traffic. At least that is the present situation as much of the the traffic heading south and west onto the bridge and towards the toll plaza has been “metered” just three miles to the north by the Exit 1 mainline toll plaza of the New Jersey Turnpike. Peak traffic in excess of 72k veh/day through the toll plaza occurs on the traditional holiday weekends and the late summer beach-weekends in August.

“At this juncture, electronic toll collection,” says Esposito, “is primarily an issue of customer service rather than necessity for our Authority.”

Back in 1997 Mark IV did a count of vehicles with E-ZPass tags and found less than 2%. That was when E-ZPass was largely confined to New York. Now there’s the Atlantic City Exwy, Delaware Turnpike on DE-1 and I-95, DRPA on the Philly bridges, NJ Turnpike early summer and the Pennsylvania pike in the fall. Maryland and perhaps Virginia will also become E-ZPass compatible. Already at the I-95 toll plaza 20km (12mi) west of the bridge they are running double digit percentages of ET.

The Authority plans to conduct at least one more count of E-ZPass tags before the New Jersey Turnpike turns the key on electronic toll collection, now projected for this May 22 and another during the peak traffic month of August to obtain a more current assessment of the ETC usage projected for the hoped-for Nov 2000 start-up.

DRPA has not made any decision regarding gating the lanes in the plaza, but Esposito says he is leaning toward ‘presence’ gates in all lanes. Safety is a central issue to the Authority, which has a 59-member police force to patrol the Bridge and approach roadways and to control traffic, especially during the busy summer months, at its ferry terminals of Cape May NJ and Lewes DE near the mouth of Delaware Bay. About 500 tickets and over 1000 reprimands are issued each month at the Bridge by the Authority’s police officers. Traffic still averages 61mph in the 50mph posted section of the bridge and its approaches.

5mph ET

Esposito says there will be a safety need to enforce the 5mph speed limit common in NY and NJ for E-ZPass-Only lanes whether with gates or otherwise. Highway speed tolling is not suited to the Bridge. There are right and left exits within 1000m of the plaza which require drivers to weave. And highway speed movement through the toll plaza could also encourage even higher speed travel over the bridge itself.

The Bridge and its immediate approach road areas are not only part of a major north-south route down the east coast but also accommodate local connections. Truck traffic is heavy with 13% commercial vehicles of which over 5% are 5-axle tractor-trailers. Commercial traffic accounts for over 47% of the Bridge’s annual revenue of just over $48m. On average, 4100, 5-axle trucks a day pass thru the Bridge’s toll plaza. Peak traffic now exceeds 6,000 18-wheelers/day.

Because trucks are so important to the Authority, Esposito and his Toll Superintendent, Raymond DiCamillo, have traveled to the head offices of the 25 largest commercial ticket users to explain the capital improvement program, ET issues, and the possibility of a toll increase later this year. Visits have been made to Dallas TX to meet with Greyhound personnel, to Green Bay WI (Schneider Truck), to Omaha NE (Werner Enterprises), to Springfield MA (Peter Pan Bus), to High Point NC (Old Dominion Truck Lines), to Lebanon PA (New Penn Truck), and to Landover MD (Giant Foods). In addition, many trips to local trucking companies and presentations to the trucking associations in DE and NJ have been made to ‘sell’ this important constituency on the importance of these capital improvement projects and to lay out the benefits from more efficient and assured passage across the Delaware River.

“We need to get their understanding of why we are doing this, and there is no better way than to visit and discuss the issues one-on-one” says Esposito In addition, the Authority has gained valuable feedback on the quality and timeliness of its services to the commercial sector.

“Our toll collectors and the travel center personnel take great pride in their customer service, and these trips have been a useful check on our staff selection and training programs.”

No toll increase has not as yet been formally proposed by DRBA to the two Governors, who retain the power of veto. The last toll increase at the Bridge was in Jan 93, when the toll for cars increased from $1.50 to $2.00 and commercial vehicles from $1.50 to $2.50/axle. One proposal for 2000 is a 50% increase to $3.00 for cars and a 20% increase to $3.00/axle for commercial vehicles. For trucks at least, the DMB is quite competitive with the $4.50 per axle rate on the Commodore Barry Bridge operated by the DRPA 19km (12 mi) upstream toward Philadelphia. Following the port authority’s toll increase for commercial vehicles on Dec 18 99 there have been several days when 18-wheeler numbers have been up 20% (800 turcks) over a year earlier, but the extent of the diversion to the Memorial bridge is not entirely clear. However it seems to be considerably larger than a Vollmer report forecasting an extra 210/day. There will be no changes to the commuter and frequent traveler rates, which were established in 1991, and now are among the lowest to be found anywhere at $0.75 (75% discount) for commuters (25 tickets per month) and $1.00 (67% discount) for frequent travelers (20 tickets over a six-month period).

11 into 4 don’t go...

In addition to the fendering work for the towers, some toll increase would seem helpful in protecting the authority’s A/AA rating with Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s and to fund the $110m capital program. A planned roadway and bridge widening and repaving project on the Delaware side of the bridge will be the most visible and the most expensive ($55m). Resurfacing and relighting of the approach roadways in New Jersey was completed last year. Traffic congestion continues to occur during peak traffic periods on either side of the Memorial Bridge at the NJ Turnpike’s Exit 1 to the east and on I-95 in Delaware at Churchman’s Marsh to the west where I-295, I-495, and I-95 merge from eleven lanes into four in the space of less than a mile. The Authority’s $55m roadway improvement plan will widen and lengthen ramps to the ICs rebuilding 13 bridges and going to highmast lighting. This is only part of sorting out this major bottleneck. DelDOT has a major plan to redo I-95 in both directions from the PA line to Wilmington during the next 2 years, but I-95 south of the 11-to-4 bottleneck will have to wait.

On the NJ side the NJ Turnpike’s Exit 1 interchange (IC) and its 2x2-lanes in the southern section are a major bottleneck during peaks. The Turnpike is beginning work on a new IC. And third-laning is in its plans. A new NJ Exit One plaza, whose capacity constraints presently ‘meter’ traffic flows south or west-bound onto the DMB and its toll plaza may start dumping larger surges of traffic into DRBA’s lap around 2005. (Contact Curt Esposito 302 571 6315 curt.esposito@drba.net)

HISTORY: Under a deed issued by King Charles in the 17th century, the waters of the Delaware are within the state of Delaware right to the low-water line on the New Jersey shore. Pressure to build the bridge came principally from Delaware with the built up area of Wilmington and Newark wanting improved access to New York, whereas on the NJ side it was completely rural. Prior to the Memorial bridge the way to New York was up the west bank of the Delaware River right through central Philadelphia.

A fixed crossing had been discussed for many years to replace a New Castle DE to Pennsville NJ ferry. Back in the 1920s a Delaware Deepwater Tunnel Company wanted to build a 2-lane tunnel at the site of the DMB. But the Delaware legislature rejected the proposal, favoring a state authority. The first span was in fact built by the Delaware State Highway Department with revenue bonds 1948-1951. With a main span of 655m (2150') and 3281m (2mi) end to end it was the sixth longest suspension span in the world when it opened. Grades reach 4% to provide clearance over the shipping channel to the ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia.

The Benjamin Franklin bridge linking downtown Philadelphia to Camden, 48km (30mi) upstream, opened in the early 1920s, and was then the closest crossing of the river. Since then the Walt Whitman, also in downtown Philadelphia, and the Commodore Barry bridge at Chester have been built between, but the Delaware Memorial over the wide tidal channel is the grandest. It is touted as the world’s largest twin suspension span. The 134m (440') steel towers have a beautiful simplicity with just a single, but substantial crosspiece at the top.

Traffic engineers can do an even worse job of forecasting for the Delaware Memorial Bridge (DMB) than the economists of today’s traffic and revenue consulting firms. Forecasts made by Delaware Highway Dept engineers had suggested 4.4m veh/yr for 1955 and toll revenues under $4m, when in fact traffic was 8m and tolls nearly $7m.

The original enabling legislation required the bridge to be made toll-free once revenue bonds had been paid off, but Delaware officials soon realized this would place maintenance and operational costs onto the regular state budget – unacceptable in a small state and on a road facility catering mainly to out-of-state travelers. They twice reduced tolls hoping to lower revenues and the rate of payoff of the bonds to defer the time when tolls would have to be removed. This had the perverse effect of encouraging the growth of traffic and brought forward the time when congestion would clog the 2x2-lanes of the first span. By 1958 any minor incident caused massive back-ups.

The bridge’s apparently-identical twin second span was only built after prolonged negotiations between the two states and formation of the bi-state Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) – established in 1963. 76m (250') upstream of the first span it was built of larger steel sections fastened with bolts rather than rivets. The second span was under construction 1964-1968. It then carried all the traffic while the original span was redecked for 4-lanes eastbound.

Both bridges now have four 3.8m (12’6) lanes. There is no breakdown shoulder but a outside lane is frequently closed with overhead lights. The second bridge was given larger cables and suspenders than the first for a heavier thicker deck 203mm (8") vs 178mm (7"). Rebuilding of the deck of the first bridge was completed at the end of 1969 and from then onward the bridge has opened with the new span taking traffic west, and the old span east. Accidents on the bridge halved immediately the two spans were operational.

Esposito says that most of the time 6-lanes is plenty but the extra lane on each bridge provides for peaks and also eases maintenance work. The bridge has X-plan transfer lanes where the approach spans touch down on each side so that they are able to close one bridge entirely when needed. (This drew on William J. Miller “Crossing the Delaware: the Story of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, the Longest Twin-Suspension Bridge in the World” Gauge Corp 1990)