· Delaware Department of Transportation agrees ‘never’ to widen the Cut-off, a popular connector between southern Brandywine Hundred and west Wilmington.

· The highway plan is modified so that a relocated northbound Cut-off does not link directly with the planned new alignment of Delaware Route 141 bordering the west and south sides of what will become Astra Zeneca property. It would be joined, instead, with Rockland Road near the entrance to the Nemous estate and the Alfred I. du Pont Hospital for Children. 

DiPinto said the residents also would like to have the intersection relocated north on Concord Pike -- roughly about halfway between its present location and a planned underpass to carry a relocated Cut-off and the Northern Delaware Greenway under the pike. That, he said, would reduce the length of the queue of  vehicles along the Cut-off waiting to turn onto the pike, primarily to access Interstate 95.

DelDOT also has been asked to look into the timing of the traffic signal at the intersection, also to minimize the amount of backup, especially during rush hours.

"I don't think the safety issue has been addressed adequately. I'd like to see additional study done on that," DiPinto said. 

Governor Thomas Carper’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the possible compromise.

It also could not be immediately learned what the directly affected state agencies – DelDOT and the Delaware Economic Development Office – think of the proposal.

A member of the Triangle Neighborhood Association, which initiated the effort to block closing of the Cut-off intersection, indicated that Wilmington group has not been a party to compromise negotiations.

A ‘town meeting’ sponsored by the Brandywine Hundred contingent in the General Assembly on Feb. 23 was to have dealt with the Blue Ball situation. The meeting was postponed and no new date for it announced.

While adoption of a compromise would seem to resolve the only remaining publicly acknowledged controversy involving the Blue Ball Project, there are several indications that the proposed realignment of Route 141 is not as much a done deal as has been previously thought. Specifically, there is said to be concern about the width of the roadway, design of an intersection through which the Alfred I. du Pont Hospital for Children would be reached, and whether Powder Mill Road – part of the present alignment of Route 141 – should be kept open to the public through the Astra Zeneca complex.

DiPinto said there is precedent for a DelDOT agreement not to widen Augustine Cut-off. A similar agreement was made more than 20 years ago when the Augustine bridge connecting the Cut-off and 18th Street with west Wilmington was rebuilt and has since been observed, he said.

"We know what 'never' means. What we're looking for is assurances that there are no plans to [widen the Cut-off]" anytime in the foreseeable future, the legislator said.

Not linking the relocated Augustine Cut-off to a relocated Route 141 or the  partial interchange planned at the present Concord Pike-Foulk Road intersection would lessen the incentive for southbound traffic to use the Cut-off, he said. Northbound traffic could join Concord Pike by way of Weldin and Foulk Roads and a proposed link from Foulk which would reach the pike just south of Independence Mall.

He said he did not think that arrangement would seriously acerbate the present situation involving traffic accessing the Cut-off by way of Alapocas Drive through the community of Alapocas and past Wilmington Friends School. Route 141 serves commuters from as far away as Prices Corner.

New Castle County Councilman Robert Weiner said his initial reaction is that lack of a link with Route 141 would hamper access from Brandywine Hundred to Augustine Cut-off and, as a result, he objects to that part of the deal. "If that happens, 80,000 residents of Brandywine Hundred will rise up in outrage," he said.

 Senator Harris McDowell, who has led the fight to continue to provide direct access to Interstate 95 from Augustine Cut-off on behalf of residents of Wilmington’s near north side who want to prevent streets in their neighborhood from being inundated with rush-hour traffic, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

Only McDowell and Weiner opposed a reversal by lawmakers and agency officials of a recommendation by community representatives on the Blue Ball Project taskforce that the Concord Pike-Augustine Cut-off intersection be kept open.

It was that issue which prevented Carper’s immediate endorsement of the plan when it was submitted to him on Jan. 13. New Castle County Executive Thomas Gordon, who was to make the event a joint endorsement, later said he favored retaining the intersection.

DiPinto said there has been misunderstanding about the process by which the conceptual road plan was to be devised. "It was never intended that it be [determined by] a democratic vote," he said. "The transportation committee [of the Blue Ball Project taskforce] was to provide community opinion. The [actual] recommendation [to the governor] was to be by the policy committee, influenced by the professionals." The policy committee consisted of elected officials; the professionals were staff and officials of  DelDOT, the Delaware Economic Development Office and the state Division of Parks & Recreation who constituted an executive committee.

He said the development office, lead agency for the Blue Ball Project, did not make that clear during a series of committee meetings which began in late August and continued through early January and media accounts have added to the confusion.