Businesses Want Route 54 Construction Done Before Memorial Day

FENWICK ISLAND, Del.-- The countdown is on, Memorial Day is a little more than a month away. As the start to the summer season in the coastal town nears, some in Sussex County are more worried than excited.

For more than a year Route 54 construction has clogged the road to Fenwick Island, Delaware beaches and Ocean City. DELDOT is widening the highway and adding a center turn lane near Selbyville and Fenwick Island.

Businesses worry construction will not be finished before the beach season begins and some say they can't survive the gridlock any longer.

Smitty McGee's and other businesses have started a petition, they are pushing DELDOT hard to finish up.

"Get this show on the road finish the construction and just be done with it and let us go back to normal," said Karen Fritz, the manager at Smitty McGee's.

After starting the petition Friday, Smitty's has 500 written signatures on the petition. That doesn't include the other restaurants that have the petitions and the online petition.

The petition asks DELDOT to have the construction 100% done before Memorial Day.

"If the tourists coming in town for the holiday weekend which is the beginning of summer, if they see that construction again this year they will not come back to this part of town and all the businesses will suffer again," Fritz said.

DELDOT continues to work on the road Monday to Friday.

DELDOT official Mike Williams said, "It is possible but not probable" that the work won't be done before the tourist season.

Williams said most of the work is supposed to be finished by May 15.