SMYRNA, Del.- The first phase of a project to extend cable barriers along the grassy median of Delaware Route 1 between Odessa and Dover remains on track to be completed this year, a Delaware Department of Transportation spokesman said Monday.
The agency is currently placing 17 miles worth of high-tension cable barriers between Odessa and just north of the Kent County line in Smyrna, a measure aimed at reducing dangerous wrong-way crashes involving drivers crossing the median between the northbound and southbound lanes.
The work will cost roughly $8 million and was started earlier this year.
DelDOT plans to begin installing the barriers between Smyrna and Dover Either late this year or next year, according to C.R. McLeod, a DelDOT spokesman.
"While crossover crashes are very rare, they do tend to be deadly and have serious injuries as a result," he said.
A crash over the weekend involving a driver crossing the Route 1 median saw two people sent to the hospital in critical condition.
McLeod said that crash happened south of where the first-phase of the barrier project would have been located, but likely would have been in an area covered by the second phase of the project.