DelDOT website aims to help develop non-traditional transportation projects

Updated Dec 23, 2016
Delaware Avenue, Wilmington (DelDOT)Delaware Avenue, Wilmington (DelDOT)

The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) has launched a website aimed at helping to develop non-traditional transportation projects to provide choices for cyclists and pedestrians.

The site was developed for the state’s Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP)—a Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) program created through the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. Its purpose is to “encourage community-based projects” that are small in scale, including pedestrian and bicycle facilities, recreational trails, safe routes to schools, vegetation management, stormwater management and historic preservation.

“TAP projects are grass roots driven projects that allows communities to determine what their transportation needs are and with the help of local government acting as sponsors, help build connections to enhance walking and biking as well as add beautification to their neighborhoods in the form of landscaping, lighting, or street furniture,” says Ann Gravatt, DelDOT planning supervisor and TAP manager.

DelDOT says it supports and administers the TAP for all Delaware projects, and all potential TAP projects require a sponsor, which will be responsible for 20 percent of the project costs.

“The project sponsor also assumes the maintenance and legal liability for the duration of the project’s useful life,” the agency says. “Any project sponsored by a non-government agency, organization or individual must have a government agency as a co-sponsor.”

Sponsors can be local governments, regional transportation authorizes, natural resource or public land agencies, school districts and local education agencies or other local and governmental entities that have oversight of transportation or recreational trails.

More details area available here.