Ryan CormierDelaware News Journal
Show Caption
For nearly a year, visitors driving into Wilmington from one of its four exits on I-95 have been met with an over-sized curiosity before even reaching a city street.
It comes in the form of four mysterious (and totally blank) attractions signs both along the interstate and on exit ramps ― massive deep blue placards that have been bare dating back to the final jobs as part of the $200 million "Restore the Corridor" I-95 project around the city.
And it's just not visitors scratching their heads wondering about the signs to nowhere, which have certainly spawned a few jokes about whether Wilmington has any attractions to even list ― an updated, city version of the old "Wayne's World" wisecrack about Delaware.
"Imagine being able to be magically whisked away to Delaware. Hi, I'm in Delaware," Mike Myers deadpans in the 1992 comedy.
Residents also have been wondering what's up with barren beacons, originally erected to tout the city's offerings, which range from the state's only IMAX movie theater and minor league baseball stadium to the Riverwalk and pair of downtown historic theaters.
"...[It] makes me laugh every time I drive past it. There nothing to see here … drive on," joked Wilmington resident Matt Morrissette on Facebook, himself once a co-owner a city attraction, the now-closed bar/arcade 1984.
If you've assumed that someone, somewhere must have been working on getting these signs filled with attractions and businesses over all these months, you'd be wrong. That process has not yet begun.
Here's why.
Who's in charge of the Wilmington signs?
The four signs were built by Delaware's Department of Transportation as part of the two-year, five-mile I-95 reconstruction project, which began in February 2021.
Two are located along I-95: southbound before the Fourth Street exit and northbound prior to the Maryland Avenue/Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard exit. The two other complementary signs are located at the bottom of each of those off ramps.
They went up in September, according to Charles “C.R.” McLeod, DelDOT's director of community relations.
The signs will be part of the state's blue logo program, which teams the state's blue gas, food and lodging signs with a third-party vendor.
The company, West Trenton, New Jersey-based Delaware Logos, have been contracting with the state since 1999 and is charged with soliciting businesses to populate the signs, which pay a fee to be featured.
Why are the Wilmington signs still empty?
So why do the signs remain giant blue voids months after they went up? It all boils down to bureaucracy, contracts and the fact that the signs went up as part of a special project.
The signs will be included in the next contract award "expected to be completed this summer," McLeod says.
"In this case, [the signs] were installed as part of the I-95 project without any coordination/input from the logo program. Therefore, the logo program had no idea they were there. So this was not how it normally works," he added.
The signs were not part of the current year-long contract, which Delaware Logos General Manager Lee Haddaway says went into effect June 30, 2023 and ends later this month.
"They are going to hand the signs over to us once the new contract starts," Haddaway says. "Nothing has been going on with the new ones. They are not ours yet."
Haddaway could not give a timetable for when the signs will finally promote some of the city's biggest draws: "I'm not sure. We don't have the details of the contract."
Who Made What: Here's how much the governor's 17 Cabinet members earned last year, from most to least
Toasting Delaware: Delaware may adopt a state co*cktail. Here are 7 other state symbols you might not know
For his part, McLeod says he believes Delaware Logos should be able to begin solicitation "over the next few months."
Wilmington officials 'disappointed' with the pace
While the unfilled signs are frozen in place as the state's blue logo program slowly catches up to them, city officials can only keep waiting.
While John Rago, Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki's deputy chief of staff, says the city is appreciative the signs were included in the project, he adds, "We are disappointed that it has taken this long to populate these attraction signs."
After all, the city's slogan for the past dozen years has been, "Wilmington, in the middle of it all," but you wouldn't know it from the still-vacant signs.
"Admittedly, one could get the impression from I-95 that there is not much happening in Wilmington, but that would be a very, very wrong assumption," Rago says. "In fact, Wilmington is a livelier, more fun and a more thriving and welcoming city than it has been in many, many years."
Have a story idea? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and X (@ryancormier).
