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Over the summer, I have proposed a Interstate highway tunnel under the Delaware bay connecting NJ Freeway 55 to SH Route 1 slightly south of Dover, Delaware. I believe that such a tunnel would greatly reduce the traffic along I 95 and provide a more direct connection for those willing to access the Delmarva peninsula. Such a project is very expensive, but would be very helpful in controlling road traffic within the Mid Atlantic. Please go through my plan and tell me what you think. I have provided a useful link for you to view the entire description.
Who does this remotely benefit in order to justify such a massive investment cost? You are basically proposing that we spend, what? 10+ billion dollars building a highway and tunnel that connects Vineland to Dover? Who can that possibly help? If the issue is shore traffic congestion in the summers than a fraction of the cost of this project would pay for extending Route 55 all the way to the GSP and widening sections of 1 and 95 in DE.
If you think this could even feasibly be an alternate route for traffic moving up and down the northeast corridor, than you are way off base. People would need to make a 100+ mile detour just in the hopes of avoiding congestion near Wilmington and Philly. If they want to do that and they can, they just cross at the Del Mem Bridge and head up I-295 in NJ which is hardly overly congested at non-rush hour.
I see zero point for this project especially given the monstrous costs involved.
20-25 miles UNDER the river? Are you serious? Do you have any idea the cost of such an undertaking would cost? More then the operating budget for a small state.. Who do you think has such $$ in this day an age? For what? People in De to get to South Jersey when they already is 2 ways???
Who does this remotely benefit in order to justify such a massive investment cost? You are basically proposing that we spend, what? 10+ billion dollars building a highway and tunnel that connects Vineland to Dover? Who can that possibly help? If the issue is shore traffic congestion in the summers than a fraction of the cost of this project would pay for extending Route 55 all the way to the GSP and widening sections of 1 and 95 in DE.
If you think this could even feasibly be an alternate route for traffic moving up and down the northeast corridor, than you are way off base. People would need to make a 100+ mile detour just in the hopes of avoiding congestion near Wilmington and Philly. If they want to do that and they can, they just cross at the Del Mem Bridge and head up I-295 in NJ which is hardly overly congested at non-rush hour.
I see zero point for this project especially given the monstrous costs involved.
THIS TUNNEL IS NOT FOR THOSE TRAVELLING BETWEEN WILMINGTON AND PHILADELPHIA.
This project will benefit those travelling to cities like Salisbury, MD and Norfolk, VA via route 13 from Philadelphia, Pa and NYC. Using this tunnel, one can connect to DE route 1 and reach US 13 by taking DE Route 10 or DE route 12. NJ 55 already provides connection to Philadelphia via Route 42 and US 13 is the primary highway within Delmarva. It will be completed using federal funds (whenever enough is available) not state based money.
Those going to the shore from Philly have the option of taking the AC expressway towards GSP. Shore traffic in NJ is not the problem being addressed. Separating the I 95 traffic headed towards Delmarva using another freeway is the main reason I came up with such a plan. The freeway I 595 passes through Vineland and Dover but caters to those travelling from Philly to towns in Delmarva.
There is literally no space to widen I 95 in Delaware, since it passes through very densely populated areas. Land acquisition will be a major problem encountered in such a case and will take a long time to settle in court. The best solution as of now is to find ways to distribute the excess traffic along I 95 using other freeways passing through less dense areas.
THIS TUNNEL IS NOT FOR THOSE TRAVELLING BETWEEN WILMINGTON AND PHILADELPHIA.
This project will benefit those travelling to cities like Salisbury, MD and Norfolk, VA via route 13 from Philadelphia, Pa and NYC. Using this tunnel, one can connect to DE route 1 and reach US 13 by taking DE Route 10 or DE route 12. NJ 55 already provides connection to Philadelphia via Route 42 and US 13 is the primary highway within Delmarva. It will be completed using federal funds (whenever enough is available) not state based money.
Those going to the shore from Philly have the option of taking the AC expressway towards GSP. Shore traffic in NJ is not the problem being addressed. Separating the I 95 traffic headed towards Delmarva using another freeway is the main reason I came up with such a plan. The freeway I 595 passes through Vineland and Dover but caters to those travelling from Philly to towns in Delmarva.
There is literally no space to widen I 95 in Delaware, since it passes through very densely populated areas. Land acquisition will be a major problem encountered in such a case and will take a long time to settle in court. The best solution as of now is to find ways to distribute the excess traffic along I 95 using other freeways passing through less dense areas.
OK, how many people will this impact? How many people actually travel from Philly to the Delmarva that need a more express way to do so? I've travelled from Philly along 95 and even into the Delmarva several times, the traffic on 95 is NOT from people going down the Delmarva, at least not the majority of it.
This project would literally cost well north of $10 billion. You need a large user impact justification to spend that kind of money. I just don't see it. It's an interesting idea, but not impactful to the vast majority of people in the region and given the obscene costs, is something that will frankly NEVER happen.
I'm not trying to be insulting here, but this is real life, not Sim City. It seems like you drew a line on the map and figured it would make sense, or you happen to be one of the people this would benefit. The comment that it would be completed with federal funds and no state money when enough is available proves you have no clue how these things get done.
Think about all of the road and rail infrastructure projects in NJ, just NJ and then justify allocating billions on top of billions to this tunnel project over top of virtually anything else. I couldn't see your link, but do you have anything in terms of traffic flow studies that would justify something like this? The Channel Tunnel cost $21 billion to build and that's about how long of a tunnel you are proposing, not to mention the highway connections that need to be built in NJ. It is estimated the Holland Tunnel would cost $8 billion to build today and that handles 100,000 cars a day. How many cars would your $21+ billion "tunnel to nowhere anyone actually wants to go" cost?
At the southern end of Delmarva, you have a combination of 3 significantly large cities. Norfolk, Newport News, and Virginia beach. From my knowledge, Virginia Beach is the largest city within the state of Virginia. It also has a very successful tourism industry which leads to a large amount of passenger traffic. In addition, Newport news and the northern part of Norfolk are major port cities, which leads to a significant amount of truck traffic. In between the tunnel and these cities you have the city of Salisbury. Dover, DE the capital is slightly north of the tunnel. Combine that with people headed to other popular tourist destinations like Ocean City Maryland and the beaches of southern Delaware, and you will eventually begin to see a significant traveling population headed towards Delmarva. All these people currently use I-95 or the Turnpike in south jersey and I 95 in Delaware till US 13. The only other option besides building this tunnel is to widen the turnpike into a 10 lane highway (5+5) from exit 4 to US 13 in Delaware, which as I mentioned is not currently possible.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Originally Posted by Adi from the Brunswicks
THIS TUNNEL IS NOT FOR THOSE TRAVELLING BETWEEN WILMINGTON AND PHILADELPHIA.
This project will benefit those travelling to cities like Salisbury, MD and Norfolk, VA via route 13 from Philadelphia, Pa and NYC. Using this tunnel, one can connect to DE route 1 and reach US 13 by taking DE Route 10 or DE route 12. NJ 55 already provides connection to Philadelphia via Route 42 and US 13 is the primary highway within Delmarva. It will be completed using federal funds (whenever enough is available) not state based money.
Those going to the shore from Philly have the option of taking the AC expressway towards GSP. Shore traffic in NJ is not the problem being addressed. Separating the I 95 traffic headed towards Delmarva using another freeway is the main reason I came up with such a plan. The freeway I 595 passes through Vineland and Dover but caters to those travelling from Philly to towns in Delmarva.
There is literally no space to widen I 95 in Delaware, since it passes through very densely populated areas. Land acquisition will be a major problem encountered in such a case and will take a long time to settle in court. The best solution as of now is to find ways to distribute the excess traffic along I 95 using other freeways passing through less dense areas.
At the southern end of Delmarva, you have a combination of 3 significantly large cities. Norfolk, Newport News, and Virginia beach. From my knowledge, Virginia Beach is the largest city within the state of Virginia. It also has a very successful tourism industry which leads to a large amount of passenger traffic. In addition, Newport news and the northern part of Norfolk are major port cities, which leads to a significant amount of truck traffic. In between the tunnel and these cities you have the city of Salisbury. Dover, DE the capital is slightly north of the tunnel. Combine that with people headed to other popular tourist destinations like Ocean City Maryland and the beaches of southern Delaware, and you will eventually begin to see a significant traveling population headed towards Delmarva. All these people currently use I-95 or the Turnpike in south jersey and I 95 in Delaware till US 13. The only other option besides building this tunnel is to widen the turnpike into a 10 lane highway (5+5) from exit 4 to US 13 in Delaware, which as I mentioned is not currently possible.
Delaware is working on a state wide Rail network that connect all the cities and large towns to the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Points North.
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