Delaware Turnpike

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The Delaware Turnpike was named after John F. Kennedy.

The Delaware Turnpike is an 11 mile-long tollway which carries Interstate 95 between Maryland's John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway and Wilmington, Delaware. The Delaware Turnpike is informally known as one of the most expensive toll roads in the United States, if you compare it to other toll roads on a "per mile" charge. The $3 toll for the 11 miles in length of the road equals 27.3 cents per mile.

The north end of the Delaware Turnpike is at the US 13/US 40 interchange (Farnhurst Interchange) on I-295, north of which traffic continues along the Delaware Memorial Bridge approach towards the New Jersey Turnpike. [1] Just south of the north end, a three-way split (Christiana Interchange) provides connections to the continuation of I-95 through Wilmington to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and to I-495, a bypass of Wilmington.

The Delaware Turnpike also interchanges with the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway (Delaware Route 1), a 51-mile toll facility to Dover and Rehoboth Beach, near Christiana.

The Turnpike was built as a bypass to US 40, which carried traffic between Baltimore and Wilmington.

The Turnpike, along with the adjacent highway in Maryland, are named in memory of President John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy opened the highways on November 15, 1963, a week before his assassination, and the highways were renamed in his memory afterwards. Until the mid-1980's, both the Maryland and Delaware toll highways shared the same exit numbering system, with Exit-1 being in White Marsh, Maryland and the northermost exit (at Delaware Route 141) being exit 13. Maryland has since converted to a mileage-based exit system based on the entry point of I-95 in Maryland (at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac River), while Delaware went to a sequential exit system similar to that employed by Pennsylvania (until it converted over to the milepost system in 2001).

Effective October 1, 2005, the toll for automobiles is $3, with discounted tolls applying to 3- or more axle vehicles using the E-ZPass electronic toll collection system during the overnight hours. [2]

1 Interchanges
2 Shunpiking the Delaware Turnpike
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Interchanges

Prior to 1982, the Delaware Turnpike shared an exit numbering system with that of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway in Maryland, which has since become a non-toll highway (except at the Millard E. Tydings Memorial Bridge, in which a one-way toll [northbound] is still charged). The exit numbers adopted after 1982 are similar to those used on most Northeastern Interstate highways, and unlike the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway (Delaware Route 1), are numbered sequentially. A median service area with several gas stations and restaurants exists between exits 1 & 3. Also, ramp tolls existed on Exits 1, 3, and 4 (on ramps exiting southbound or entering northbound), but were removed in the early 1980's (the only evidence of their existence are straight, wide sections on these ramps). There are talks on reinstating the ramp tolls at Exits 1 and 3 in the future to pay for a major upgrade project at Exit 4 to replace the current "classic cloverleaf" interchange with that using high-speed ramps, along with widening the highway between Exit-4 and the I-295 junction with an additional lane in each direction.

County	Exit numbers		Exit name	Notes
County	Current	Former	Exit name	Notes
DELAWARE-MARYLAND STATE LINE, BEGIN DELAWARE TURNPIKE
NEWARK TOLL PLAZA
New Castle	1	10^[1]	(Del. 896) Newark-Middletown	Access to U.S. 40, U.S. 301, and Chesapeake Bay Bridge
New Castle		2	U.S. Route 301	Planned interchange for proposed U.S. Rt. 301 Bypass around Newark – Abandoned circa 1995
New Castle	3	11^[1]	(Del. 273) Newark-Dover	Connects with New Castle County Airport and Delaware Route 1
New Castle	4A	12^[1]	(Del. 1 & Del. 7 South) Christiana-Mall Road	Junction with Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway toll facility
New Castle	4B	12^[1]	(Del. 7 North & Del. 58) Churchmans Crossing-Stanton	To Delaware Park Racetrack
New Castle	5A & B	13^[1]	(U.S. 202 South & Del. 141) New Castle-Newport	To New Castle County Airport
New Castle	SEE NOTE		JCT. (I-95 & U.S. 202 North) Wilmington-Philadelphia	Mainline Delaware Turnpike follows Exit 5C (unmarked) off of I-95. Turnpike is I-295 from here. Access to I-495 to Port of Wilmington, via this exit
New Castle	N/A		JCT. / US 13/US 40-New Castle County Airport-Wilmington-Baltimore	Official End of Delaware Turnpike. Roadway continues as /US 40 I-295/US 40 east of here. U.S. 301 originally terminated here between 1960 and mid-1990's.
New Castle	N/A		Landers Lane	NORTHBOUND LOCAL ACCESS ONLY
New Castle	N/A		(Del. 9) Wilmington-New Castle	LAST EXIT IN DELAWARE
Delaware Memorial Bridge TOLL PLAZA ( SOUTHBOUND ONLY)
Delaware Memorial Bridge to New Jersey and New York City (via New Jersey Turnpike)

[edit] Shunpiking the Delaware Turnpike

The practice of dodging toll booths is called shunpiking. The Delaware Memorial Bridge toll is inconvenient but not impossible to dodge. It can be avoided by taking I-95 through Philadelphia, as this provides the only free Delaware River freeway crossing. This is moot for northbound traffic, as the bridge no longer charges a toll in that direction. The Delaware/Maryland border toll can be dodged by taking exit 1 (Delaware Route 896 NORTH), making a left onto Delaware Route 4 WEST and another left at Delaware Route 2 WEST/Elkton Road. At the Maryland border, the road becomes Maryland Route 279. I-95 can be accessed via Route 279. Northbound traffic can accomplish the same dodge by exiting at Exit 109 and taking Route 279 WEST towards Newark.

Another way, especially for trucks (as DE 4 has a truck restriction in place), is to take U.S. Route 40 (Pulaski Highway) by exiting off at Exit-100 in Maryland, and then either picking up Delaware Route 1 near Bear (this section has no toll due to a stipulation by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep the St. Georges Bridge open), or continuing onto U.S. Route 13 North to either I-295 or I-495 (which bypasses Wilmington itself on a high-speed, 6-lane bypass).