Delaware Route 9
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Delaware Route 9 is a 65-mile state highway that connects with Delaware Route 1 at the Dover Air Force Base (only just less than a mile south of the southern terminus of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway to Interstate 95 in the City of Wilmington. Much like their U.S. Highway counterparts (Delaware State Routes, with some exceptions, follow the AASHTO system used for numbering U.S. highways), Delaware Route 9 runs east of Delaware Route 1, but unlike the more heavily-traveled Delaware 1, Delaware Route 9 is a designated scenic highway, and has a commercial truck restriction between Dover A.F.B. and Delaware City.
[edit] Description (Dover A.F.B. to Port Penn)
Delaware Rt. 9 begins at a surface intersection with Delaware Rt. 1 just south of the toll road terminus (Exit-92) and is in part, a two-lane, unimproved road that goes through most of the marshlands that comprise of the Delaware Bay watershed. Past the Dover A.F.B. area, Del. Rt. 9 goes through the towns of Little Creek and Leipsic, crossing several tributaries of the Delaware Bay on either low or high fixed crossings. North of Leipsic, Del. Rt. 9 passes through the Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge which has significant populations of nesting Bald Eagles, taking advantage of the populations of brackish water striped bass and fresh water sunfish that reside in the area.
Past Bombay Hook, the road crosses over the Smyrna River on a high-level crossing (this was a drawbridge in the past) and then splits off south of Odessa with Delaware Route 299. The road, after crossing over several more tidal rivers, then draws up to the headwaters of the Delaware Bay, at Augustine Beach, in which the Salem Nuclear Power Plant can be easily seen. Delaware Rt. 9 then enters the small town of Port Penn, which continues north to Delaware City
[edit] Port Penn to Delaware City
Past Port Penn, Del. Rt. 9 continues north through the Delaware marshlands on a more modern two lane road with emergency shoulders. For four miles, the road criscrosses with several swamps and drainage canals until the road crosses the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal on the Reedy Point Bridge. Opened in 1966, the high-level crossing replaced a vertical-lift drawbridge as part of the 1960's canal improvement project that eliminated all locks on the canal as well as the building of both the Summit Bridge (U.S. Route 301 and Delaware Rts. 71 and 896) and the Canal Lift Bridge for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
North of the canal itself, which serves as the "border line" for the Delaware River and Delaware Bay, the road then crosses over both Fort Dupont and the Governor Bacon Health Center before entering Delaware City itself. Just past the canal, but before Delaware City, Del. Rt. 9 crosses over the Delaware City Channel, which was before the 1920's, the eastern terminus of the C & D Canal. The Delaware City Channel, which connects the present-day canal with the Delaware River, serves as a marina, but access to the canal is restricted due to the drawbridge, which Del. Rt. 9 uses, is currently out of service. After going through Delaware City, the road then continues north to the intersection with Delaware Route 72 at the Valero (formerly Texaco) Oil Refinery, at that point the scenic road and commercial truck restrictions end.
[edit] Delaware City to Wilmington
Past Del. Rt. 72, Del. Rt. 9, now a "normal" two lane road, continues north through the Valero Oil Refinery complex, with its northern boundaries at the Red Lion Creek bridge. After crossing Red Lion Creek, the road passes the northern training grounds for the Delaware National Guard and then enters New Castle near a tidal retention gate. In New Castle, the Del. Rt. 9 intersects with two state routes, Delaware Route 273, which connects New Castle with Rising Sun, Maryland and Delaware Route 141, which bypasses Wilmington to the west. Del. Rt. 9 then, for the first time, becomes a four-lane road and then intersects with I-295 and U.S. Route 40 at the base of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, I-495 (via Delaware Route 9A) at the Port of Wilmington, and then U.S. Route 13 in Wilmington. Del. Rt. 9 continues with U.S. Rt. 13 into Downtown Wilmington, where, just past the Christina River drawbridge and a low-clearance underpass for Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, U.S. Rt. 13 breaks off, and Del. Rt. 9 continues past the headquarters of Chase and several other major financial corporations that uses Delaware as their coporate addresses. Just north of the downtown area, Del. Rt. 9, like Del. Rt. 1, comes to an end at the junction of I-95 near the Wilmington Riverfront area.
