Residents of Southbridge — one of Wilmington’s historic and oldest predominantly Black neighborhoods — say overlapping construction at their two primary traffic corridors has left them traumatized and feeling disregarded.
In late 2022, the city of Wilmington closed A Street to improve sewer separation in Southbridge as part of a $26 million project to alleviate flooding in South Wilmington. The work was followed up in mid-March by a Delaware Department of Transportation project that closed Winchester Bridge for nearly three weeks.
Residents say the timing of both projects, which are located in areas that connect them into the city, wreaked havoc by creating traffic and safety concerns. A petition of disapproval is circulating.
“The city has no regard for us,” is what longtime Southbridge resident Rick King said his first thought was when he noticed the shutdown.
“They just want to frustrate us so everybody moves out, and they can just take over and do what they want to do,” King said.
A spokesperson for the city of Wilmington acknowledged the disruption but said emergency services providers were alerted of the closures.
The work on the bridge focused on replacing a mechanism that opens and closes it. DelDOT delayed its work on the bridge until mid-March at the city’s request, and A street was opened to accommodate “limited” traffic in one lane, said John Rago, Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki’s deputy chief of staff for policy and communications.
C.R McLeod, a spokesman for DelDOT, said his department could not delay the bridge work any further than the end of March to accommodate the sailing schedule of Delaware’s Kalmar Nyckle — a tall ship that has served as an iconic and educational resource in the area since 1997. The permanent exhibit opened on April 1, he said.
“It is unfortunate that the bridge closing occurred when it did,” Rago said. “Even though this situation caused a travel inconvenience for South Wilmington residents, the city had an effective emergency response plan in place.”
Haneef Salaam, president of the Southbridge Civic Association, disagrees. He called the timing of the projects “traumatizing” for residents.
“The city has usually been great with communicating with Southbridge, but on the planning for these two projects — I don’t think they did their due diligence,” Salaam said. “If it wasn’t racism, it was a lack of priority on the Southbridge residents and lack of care for the mobility and accessibility of our residents once those streets were closed.”
While DelDOT concluded its work on the bridge on March 30, the city is not fully re-opening A street for at least the next two months, Rago said.
Bobbie Foote, a longtime Southbridge resident on New Castle Avenue, said many residents have had to deviate from their daily routines to maneuver around construction.
“I’ve witnessed and experienced inconveniences of the bridge being shut down for a period of time or maybe one lane on A Street being shut down but not like this,” said Foote, adding that many residents possibly missed work due to not knowing where to take the bus.
Saalam, who serves as the manager of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Delaware Campaign for Smart Justice, said the residents of Southbridge deserve an apology for the disruption.
“I don’t know what should be the proper recourse from our public officials, but the situation with the repairs could have been better planned by the city and state,” Saalam said.
The city issued an apology to Delaware Online/The News Journal regarding the inconveniences both projects caused.
“The City apologizes for any inconvenience caused to residents in the Southbridge community because these projects overlapped. The City’s emergency services to residents were not endangered during the bridge closing but we do understand that travel restrictions are annoying and are an inconvenience,” the statement said.
DelDOT has no plans to apologizei because disruptions are the nature of the work, McLeod said.
James Albert Flowers, an activist in Southbridge who hopes to build up the community, is urging residents to sign a petition expressing their disapproval of the construction work that shut down the community for nearly three weeks. At least 144 residents have signed it as of April 27, he said.
“We should hold them accountable because they took advantage of us and the historical value of the community,” said Flowers, who has been talking with Southbridge residents about the petition since early April.
Flowers hopes it will create a “voice” for the community.
“I plan to file a case against whoever is responsible for shutting those streets down,” Flowers said.
More:Why did Wilmington surprise Southbridge residents, developers and oppose project?
Have a tip or story idea? Contact local reporter Cameron Goodnight at cgoodnight@delawareonline.com, or by calling or texting 302-324-2208. Follow him on Twitter at @CamGoodnight.
