Delaware Route 1

Delaware Route 1 is a 110 mile long, four-to-six lane highway going from the Maryland-Delaware State line on the eastern Atlantic shoreline to the Delaware Turnpike (Interstate 95) just outside of Wilmington.

The highway, which first came into existence in the late 1970s, was originally a two-lane road signed as Delaware Route 14, but was truncated to Milford when the Delaware Department of Transportation adopted a U.S. Highway-style system for its state routes. From the early 1970s to 1995, the highway ended at is what is now U.S. Route 113, but in the mid-1970s, the DOT studied a "Dover Extension" of the Delaware Turnpike, which evolved into today's Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway.

Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway

The Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, simply known as the "Route 1 Turnpike" or "Relief Route", is a 51-mile (82 km) long, four-lane controlled-access toll highway that connects the Delaware Turnpike in Christiana to the Dover Air Force Base Complex in Southern Dover. The roadway was built in several stages, starting in 1989, and was completed in 2003 with the Odessa-Tybouts Corner section being opened to traffic. The highway was dedicated in 1995 shortly after the dedication of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C..

The highway, built to Interstate Highway standards, has a total of four travel lanes, except for a portion between Biddles Corner and Tybouts Corner, where the highway has six lanes. Construction was funded with the normal 60% federal/40% state ratio, but allowing the state to recoup costs of building the highway through the use of tolls collected at two mainline barriers in Biddles Corner and Dover (near the Dover International Speedway used by NASCAR), and at several exits between the two ends. The Federal Highway Administration stipulated that the tolls must be removed by 2020, or when the roadway is paid off, whichever comes first (although future expansion projects and possible privatization may keep the tolls on longer).

An extension of the "Relief Route" is planned to extend from Dover down the U.S. Route 13 corridor (via U.S. Route 13 or U.S. Route 113) to the Maryland state line. If such an extension is made, it is possible that once tolls are removed, the entire route from Interstate 95 to Maryland could become a new Interstate highway (Interstate 101 being the proposed designation due to the Interstate 99 designation being used right now in Altoona, Pennsylvania). An alternative, if DelDOT builds both a non-toll freeway and an extension of the current turnpike to Rehoboth Beach and Ocean City, Maryland (in a manner similar to that of the Atlantic City Expressway in New Jersey, but sign strictly as DE Rt. 1), would have the new Interstate be a non-tolled highway between the Maryland line and Dover, with tolls being charged north of Dover to I-95.

The main feature of the highway is the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Bridge, a concrete cable-stayed structure located in St. Georges and crossing the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal with a 750-foot center span. The new six-lane bridge allows through traffic and heavy trucks to bypass the nearby St. Georges Bridge, which was built during World War II and was showing major signs of deterioration. The new bridge was also the first major project to use prefabricated concrete segments, produced in a factory setting and transported by barge to the project site.

In addition, while the highway uses regular mileposts, the exit numbers use metric measurements--a byproduct of a failed experiment proposed by President Bill Clinton, in which the U.S. would convert all use of measurements from the standard "English" system to the universal metric system.

Although owned and operated by the Delaware Department of Transportation along with the Delaware Turnpike, Governor Ruth Ann Minner proposed that the road be privatized, with the DOT being contracted by the new company to provide routine maintenance to the roadway. The road costs $3.00, with E-Z Pass users paying less, especially those who commute between Dover and Wilmington on a regular basis.

Toll Route Interchanges

Unlike the Delaware Turnpike and New Jersey Turnpike, which uses a sequential exit system, or the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Atlantic City Expressway, and Garden State Parkway, which uses a mileage-based system, the Route 1 Turnpike utilizes a kilometer-based system, in anticipation of a mid-1990's conversion of all measurements in the U.S. from the standard "English" system to the metric system. All distance markers were in kilometers as well as all exit numbers. Since then, the distance markers were replaced with standard milemarkers, but the exit numbers are still in metric. In addition, the exits north of U.S. 13 in Tybouts Corner were in standard miles, reflecting Delaware Route 1 mileage from Ocean City, Maryland, but were converted in 1995 with the opening of the C & D Canal Bridge.

Exit numbers		Exit name	Notes
Current	Former
	92	Dover A.F.B. South Gate	Planned exit--CLOSED after September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks
93		Dover A.F.B. Main Gate-Visitors	Former surface intersection, converted in 1996-97
95		S. Dover-Camden (DE 10)
97		Salisbury Md.-Norfolk Va. (To U.S. 13)	DE 1 S.B. ONLY
98		Downtown Dover-Little Creek (DE 8)	DE 1 S.B. ONLY
DOVER TOLL PLAZA
104		N. Dover-Scarborough Road {U.S. 13)	To Dover International Speedway
114		S. Smyrna (U.S. 13)
119		N. Smyrna-Townsend (U.S. 13)	Rest Area--THIS EXIT (Northernmost exit on Dover-Smyrna Section between 1992-2004)
136		Odessa-Middletown (DE 299)	NO TRUCKS OVER 2 AXLES
142		Mt. Pleasant-Boyds Corner (U.S. 13 and DE 896)	Connection to U.S. 301
BIDDLES CORNER TOLL PLAZA
148		S. St. Georges (To U.S. 13)	DE 1 S.B. ONLY, Opened in 1999
Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Bridge
152		Delaware City, Newark, N. St. Georges (U.S. 13 S.B. and DE 72)	To DE 9
156	96	New Castle-N.J./N.Y. (U.S. 13 N.B.)	Direct access to DE 71 from DE 1 S.B. ONLY, via Exit-156A ramp
160	98	Elkton Md.-State Road (U.S. 40)
162	99	Newark-New Castle (DE 273	To New Castle County Airport
164	100	Christiana-Mall Road (DE 7 S.B.)	Access to Christiana Mall complex
165	101	Delaware Turnpike-Wilmington-Baltimore (I-95)	To Delaware Memorial Bridge and N.J. Turnpike
END DE 1, BEGIN DE 7
166		Churchmans Road-Churchmans Crossing	To Christiana Hospital
END OF HIGHWAY

The Coastal Highway

South of the toll road, Delaware Route 1 continues south to Frederica and then Milford, where it bypasses the city on a five-mile bypass. Prior to 2004, this stretch of highway between the toll road and the Milford Bypass was co-signed as U.S. Route 113, but the road was truncated at the northern junction with the bypass. Past Milford, the road continues past the small towns of Milton, and Red Mill, before reaching Nassau, Delaware, where it intersects with U.S. Route 9 to Lewes, and the Cape May-Lewes Ferry.

Past US 9, Route 1 passes through Midway, and the Rehoboth Outlets before a spur road (Delaware Route 1A) branches off to Rehoboth Beach. After crossing the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal, a small canal connecting the Roosevelt Inlet in Lewes with the Rehoboth Bay, the road continues through Dewey Beach, finally reaching the Delaware coast. The road then continues along the beach through several Delaware resort areas (Bethany Beach, South Benthany, and Fenwick Island), before reaching the Maryland state line, becoming Maryland State Highway 528 upon entering Ocean City, Maryland.

Delaware Route 1 has two business loops: Business Route 1, serving Milford on a two-lane stretch of road that was once part of Delaware Route 1, and before, Delaware Route 14; Delaware Route 1A, serving Rehoboth Beach and nearby Dewey Beach. A spur route, the unsigned Delaware Route 1B, provides a direct, and alternate connection between Delaware Route 1 at the Rehoboth & Lewes Canal and Delaware Route 1A, as Delaware Route 1A crosses the canal on a drawbridge, and Delaware Route 1 itself uses a high-level crossing.

Although the highway south of Milford is a four-lane highway, it was at one time a two-lane road, but was gradually converted into four lanes in the 1970s, with the last section, the Rehoboth & Lewes Canal Bridge, was rebuilt into a four-lane road by 1985. Another two-to-four lane conversion, at the Indian River Inlet between Dewey Beach and Bethany Beach, was completed in the mid-1970s, but due to premature wear by the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean and Rehoboth Bay, it is currently being replaced with a new cable-stayed structure similar in nature to the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Bridge.

Delaware Route 7

Although a different route, Delaware Route 7 north of the Interstate 95 interchange can technically be considered part of both Delaware Route 1 and U.S. Highway 13. In fact, Delaware Route 7 was originally supposed to be the route number for the Biddles Corner-Interstate 95 section of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, but was decided later to sign the highway as Route 1. When the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Bridge opened in 1995, U.S. Highway 13 was rerouted onto the new roadway, while Delaware Route 7 was extended for an extra 1.5 miles between the old sections of U.S. Route 13 and Delaware Route 72, which accessed Delaware Route 1 with a full interchange.

Because Delaware Route 7 parallels Delaware Route 1 between Delaware Route 72 and the Route 1 highway exit at the Christiana Mall, the Delaware Department of Transportation is currently expanding the two-lane road between Delaware Route 72 and Delaware Route 273 (the Christiana Bypass) to a four-lane facility, alleviating some traffic conditions off of the Route 1 highway. Some possible changes include extending the Route 1/7 highway combination from Exit-164 to Exit-162 (DE Route 273), and redesignating the remaining two-lane section as "Business Route 7."

North of Exit-166, in which the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway is currently signed as Route 7, the highway continues north over Amtrak's Northeast Corridor (along with Delaware Route 4) near Delaware Park race track, splits off with Route 4 near Stanton, and continues as a four-lane facility north to Pennsylvania State Route 41 near Avondale, Pennsylvania.

External links

• Mile by Mile: Delaware Route 1 Travel Guide - Junction of I-95 to Maryland State Line