Tag: John R. Downes Elementary School

infrastructure, news, projects

Good day for two service projects

Friday, June 10, was a beautiful day for BikeNewark volunteers to engage in a couple bike-related service projects.

At John R. Downes Elementary School on Casho Mill Road, three BikeNewark volunteers joined those from partnering groups to assemble and install new bike racks.

photo of volunteers assembling bike racks
photo of volunteers anchoring bike racks

At a recent BikeNewark meeting, BikeNewark’s Helga Huntley, who is on the city’s Conservation Advisory Council (CAC), asked for suggestions for additional CAC funds. Heather Dunigan, who represents both the Wilmington Area Planning Council (WILMAPCO) and the Newark Bike Project, suggested using funds for bike racks for local schools.

photo of bike racks at north end of school

Huntley’s husband Dave, who works at the University of Delaware’s Center for Environmental Monitoring & Analysis, made arrangements with the school to receive the order and organize the work crew. The City’s Jayme Gravell and Jeff Martindale and BikeNewark‘s Bob McBride and Mark Deshon joined the Huntleys to assemble and install the new racks, two adjoining racks on the southeast corner, adjacent to the school gym, and two on the northeast corner of the school.

photo of new signage for Christina Valley Stream Trail
close-up of signpost at the Church Road trailhead

Another project that was being completed today involved installation of wayfinding signage along the Christina Valley Stream Trail, from its north trailhead at Church Road to Rittenhouse Park.

BikeNewark’s Dave Saunders had worked with the Wilmington Trail Club’s Gary Kirk and Delaware State Parks’ David Bartoo to design the signage for this natural surface, single-path bike-ped trail that runs follows the Christina River in Newark.

Months earlier, the posts had been set. Today, Saunders and Kirk were adding the new wayfinding signage sleeves, which completes the project.

photo of signage at junction of trail and Downes footbridge
signage at junction of trail and Downes School footbridge

Although this trail is unsuitable for road bikes, those with mountain bikes can access this trail where it intersects BikeNewark’s Southwest Bikeway on the south side of the bikeway’s bike-ped bridge over the Christina River.

encouragement, engineering, infrastructure, news, projects, safety

Safe Routes to School project takes shape

aerial photo of Casho Mill Road in front of Downes School
photo submitted to and published by Newark Post

photo of beginning of bike lane buffer on Casho Mill Road
Beginning of actual buffered lane

Nearly four years after initial meetings about submitting a Safe Routes to School grant application for a project on Casho Mill Road, things are finally taking (physical) shape. Striping has been added recently, and more will be added until this initial phase of the project is complete.

The project area is between Church Road and Pickett Lane.

photo of pop-up demonstration protected bike lane
Buffered lane demonstration, 2017

For a Bike to School event at John R. Downes Elementary School back in 2017, BikeNewark worked with volunteers from the University of Delaware’s chapter of Engineers Without Borders, who created pop-up buffered bike lanes to demonstrate how a finished project might look along this busy suburban road on which the school is located.

photo of a Bike to School Week bike train
School children arriving by bike, 2017

City of Newark staff have repeatedly noted that motorized traffic continues to dash along Casho Mill Road above the posted 30mph speed limit. Public Works & Water Resources Director Tim Filasky, who is one of BikeNewark’s partner liaisons, says, “It just feels like a freeway. This will tighten it up and slow traffic.” Ultimately, the City would like to have the speed limit reduced to 25mph, as it is on sections of Casho Mill Road on either end (north and south) of the project area.

photo of motorist's view of buffered lanes on Casho Mill Road
Motorist’s view of buffered bike lanes along Casho Mill Road, showing only a slight reduction in vehicle lane width while providing ample buffer for cyclists

BikeNewark has been involved from the inception of the effort, in coordination with the City, the school, Downes parents, WILMAPCO, and DelDOT. The idea is to make bicycling safer (especially for school children and their parents) and encourage more students in this vast residential area to ride a bike to school, rather than be transported there by car.

When the project is completed near the end of 2020 [now expected fall of 2021], it will include a new crosswalk, a pedestrian-refuge island, curb ramps, traffic-calming islands, and radar-detected-speed signs.

BikeNewark’s planned West Bikeway (a segment of its Newark Bikeways low-stress network project) will intersect Casho Mill Road (and these SRTS amenities) at Lafayette Road and provide signed low-stress access to the school through the Oaklands and Nottingham Green residential neighborhoods.

> read related Newark Post article