DelDOT lays out safety push, project schedule and FY26 funding outlook

Delaware Department of Transportation Secretary Shante Hastings told the Bond Bill Committee on March 26 that DelDOT is reframing how it approaches roadway safety and preparing a roughly $575 million capital program for fiscal 2026 after operating costs and debt service. Hastings said DelDOT is pursuing a ‘‘safe systems’’ philosophy and expanding tools such as automated speed enforcement in work zones.

Hastings said the department’s immediate safety target is zero road deaths. “Our goal is 0,” she said, and noted Delaware has recorded 18 roadway fatalities to date this year — a drop from 2024 and 2023 levels even as officials emphasized that “one is too many.” The secretary described infrastructure responses that shift responsibility from individual road users to system design, citing new fencing and cable median barrier installations on Route 13 and Route 1 and smaller short-term treatments such as additional stop controls.

Why it matters: Hastings framed the presentation around two linked pressures: an intensified focus on preventing deaths and serious injuries on Delaware roads, and the need to match long-term capital work with constrained state revenues and uncertain federal funding. The department is pursuing near-term safety countermeasures while moving major corridor projects forward, but said the FY26 capital envelope will depend on both federal reauthorization and the state revenue picture.

Major safety and program highlights DelDOT said a state-authorized pilot of electronic speed enforcement in work zones has produced measurable changes where it has been used. Hastings told the committee the pilot on the I‑95/896 project began with warnings and then moved to citations; DelDOT has measured average speed reductions of about 7 miles per hour in the northbound…