Delaware Route 1

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DE Route 1
Length:	110 mi (177 km)
Formed:	1978 (completed 1995)
South end:	MD 528 in Ocean City, MD
Major junctions:	US 9 near Lewes US 113 in Milford DE 9 near Dover AFB US 13 (multiple locations) DE 896 near Odessa US 301 in St. Georges (future) US 40 in Bear DE 273 near Christiana DE 7 in Christiana
North end:	I-95/DE Tpk in Christiana
Routes in Delaware < DE 896 DE 2 >

Route 1 (Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway) approaching the Senator William V. Roth, Jr. Bridge that crosses Chesapeake and Delaware Canal near St. Georges

Delaware Route 1 is a 177 km (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.

[edit] Route Description

[edit] Delaware/Maryland State Line to Lewes

Delaware Rotue 1 starts at the Maryland/Delaware State Line at the intersection of Delaware Route 54/Maryland Route 54 in Fenwick Island, Delaware and Ocean City, Maryland. The road, mostly four lanes with six-lane sections in the resort areas, follows the Atlantic shore line through Fenwick Island State Park, South Bethany and Bethany Beach before reaching the Delaware Seashore State Park. Upon entering the park, Delaware Route 1 crosses over the Indian River Inlet, a connection between the Rehoboth and Indian River Bays and the Atlantic Ocean itself. Currently, the twin span box-beam bridges, constructed in the mid-1970's during a major widening project, are being replaced with a cable-stayed bridge (similar in design to the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Bridge) that will allow both the State of Delaware and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to eventually dredge and widen the inlet.

Past the inlet, Delaware Route 1 continues north through the state park, passing lookout towers used by the U.S. Army's Coastal Artillery forces during World War II, until the road enters Dewey Beach, a popular "fun spot" in the same cailber as that of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is here in Dewey Beach that Delaware Route 1A branches off and heads towards Rehoboth Beach, while Route 1 curves towards the left and then crosses over the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal on a high-level, twin span crossing (completed in the mid-1980's) before reabsorbing Route 1A. Between the northern junction of Route 1A and Lewes, Route 1, now a six-lane road, passes through an array of outlet shopping centers (known collectively as the "Rehoboth Outlets"), before intersecting with U.S. Route 9 and Delaware Route 404 near Lewes. U.S. Route 9 allows a direct access to the Cape May-Lewes Ferry to the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey shore, while Delaware Route 404 allows access to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, via U.S. Route 50 near Denton, Maryland.

[edit] Lewes to Dover Air Force Base

Past the U.S. Route 9/Delaware Route 404 intersection, Route 1, now known as "The Coastal Highway," starts a 20-mile run through a rural stretch of Sussex County, going past the Primehook National Wildlife Refuge near Milton, while at the same time, intersecting both Delaware Routes 5 and 16 in the process. At the intersection of Route 1 and Delaware Route 30, Delaware Business Route 1, a former two-lane stretch of Delaware Route 1 breaks off and the roadway continues east of Milford, Delaware on the "Milford Bypass," where it intersects with Delaware Route 36 on a diamond interchange. Unlike a true bypass, which has grade-separated interchanges, the Milford Bypass has both grade-separated interchanges and at-grade intersections, of which one of them intersects with Delaware Route 14, an east-west state highway that originally went from Fenwick Island to Harrington, but was truncated to Milford in 1978 when the Delaware Dept. of Transportation (DelDOT) renumbered its state highway system to mimick that used on the Federal (U.S.) Highway System.

North of Delaware Route 14, the Milford Bypass portion of Delaware Route 1 ends with the junction of Route 1 with U.S. Route 113. Prior to 2004, both Delaware Route 1 and U.S. Route 113 continued north together to Dover Air Force Base as a multiple highway route, but after numerous petitions by DelDOT, AASHTO, which governs the regulation of designating Interstate and U.S. Highways, allowed DelDOT to truncate U.S. Route 113 at this interchange. Ironically, prior to 1992, the Del. Route 1/U.S. Route 113 interchange served as the northern terminus for Del. Route 1, but with the construction of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, DelDOT extended the Del. Route 1 designation north of this interchange to prevent a "gap" between the Fenwick Island-Milford section and the toll highway.

Past U.S. Route 113, the highway continues north towards Dover, passing Frederica (on a high-speed bypass) and Little Heaven before crossing over the St. Jones River on a high-level crossing that was built in the mid-1980's as part of a U.S. Route 113 widening project between Dover and Milford. Past the St. Jones River crossing, Del. Route 1 intersects with Delaware Route 9, a two-lane rural road that prior to the completion of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, served as a "bypass" around the usually congested U.S. Route 13.

[edit] Dover Air Force Base to Wilmington

After passing Delaware Route 9, Delaware Route 1 becomes the 51-mile tolled "Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway" (originally called the "Relief Route," the current name being dedicated after the dedication of the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. in 1995) after it passes a one-way traffic light (for a private sand quarry) and a RIRO exit for Dover A.F.B. commercial traffic. After passing another exit, for access to both the base itself and its housing complex, Route 1 then splits off with the former U.S. Route 113 highway at Delaware Route 10 and then follows a high-speed four-lane highway east of Dover. This section, opened in 1992 and built (like all of its sections) to Interstate Highway standards, was the first highway on the East Coast to be marked with metric measurements, as it was anticipated during the administration of then-President Bill Clinton that the standard U.S. measurement would be dropped and the metric system be adopted. Although the route is now marked with standard milepost markers, this experimentation with metric measurements are still in place today — the exit numbers on the highway are still in metric as opposed to the standard U.S. milepost exit system used on the majority of Interstate Highways in the U.S.

After passing through the toll plaza in Dover, which has, since 2004, both cash and high-speed E-Z Pass lanes, Del. Route 1 intersects with U.S. Route 13 for the first time, just north of both the toll plaza and the and Dover International Speedway. Between Dover and Wilmington, Del. Route 1 will intersect with U.S. Route 13 a total of four times, with indirect access to the highway a total of five times, all of them via Delaware State Highway routes or with U.S. Route 40.

North of the first Del. Rt. 1/U.S. Rt. 13 interchange, the highway roughly parallels U.S. Route 13 through the northern fringes of Dover, entering New Castle County east of Smyrna. At the third interchange with U.S. Rt. 13, which served as a temporary northern terminus between 1992 and 2003, the highway crosses over U.S. Rt. 13 and then travels for the next eight miles past the small rural community of Townsend, before crossing over the Appoquinnimack River and intersecting with Delaware Route 299 to Odessa and Middletown. Past Del. Route 299, Del. Route 1 then crosses over U.S. Route 13 and the Drawyer Creek and then intersects with Delaware Route 896 in Boyds Corner.

After Del. Route 896, the road then crosses over U.S. Route 13 before reaching the Biddle Corner Toll Plaza, the first toll plaza on the East Coast to have both high-speed E-Z Pass and cash lanes, and, with some design changes, has served as a model for dual-speed mainline toll barriers on both the Pennsylvania Turnpike, New Jersey Turnpike, as well as the Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway. Passing through the toll barrier, the highway then crosses the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal on the massive steel and concrete Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Bridge, which was originally opened in 1995 as a replacement for the aging St. Georges Bridge, but now serves as a integral part of the Delaware Route 1/U.S. Route 13 corridor between Dover and Wilmington. It is also north of the toll plaza that Del. Route 1 becomes a six-lane highway, with the six lanes going approximately five miles until Del. Route 1 splits off with U.S. Route 13 (which "rides along" with Del. Route 1 north of Delaware Route 72) in Tybouts Corner.

North of the Del. Route 1/U.S. Route 13 split, the road, now back to four lanes, starts a short five mile trip north towards I-95/Delaware Turnpike, passing U.S. Route 40 and Delaware Route 273 before merging on with Delaware Route 7 near the Christiana Mall in Christiana. After merging with Del. Route 7, the Del. Route 1/7 combination continues north until it intersects with I-95/Delaware Turnpike at a classic cloverleaf interchange, upon which the Del. Route 1 designation is dropped and the highway, continuing solely as Del. Route 7, finally comes to an end at an interchange with Delaware Route 58 near Churchmans Crossing.

[edit] Tolls

As of the completion of the highway in 2003, the Delaware Dept. of Transportation (DelDOT) charges a total of $2 for the entire 51-mile length of highway, while it charges a $.50 toll at U.S. Route 13 in North Dover (southbound off/northbound on), Delaware Route 896 in Boyds Corner (northbound off/southbound on) and a $.25 toll on U.S. Route 13 in South Smyrna (southbound off/northbound on). Unlike the Delaware Turnpike, which charges a $3 toll for a total of 11.5 miles (the highest toll road rate in the U.S.), the lower rate on Del. Route 1 was possible due the majority of the funding (60% total) from the Federal government. Because of this, a stipulation was placed that the tolls must be removed either by the year 2020, or when the road is paid off, whichever comes first, although with future expansion projects (the building of the future U.S. 301 Turnpike and lane widenings between Tybouts Corner and I-95/Delaware Turnpike), reduced federal spending on highway projects, and possible privatization would most likely result in toll being kept on for a longer period of time.

[edit] 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 use a mileage-based system, the Route 1 Turnpike utilizes a kilometer-based system, in anticipation of a mid-1990s conversion of all measurements in the U.S. from the standard "English" system to the metric system (see Metrication in the United States). 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.

County	Exit numbers		Exit name	Notes
	Current	Former
Kent	92		Dover A.F.B. Commercial Gate (N.B. ONLY)	Northbound exit only. Southbound commercial vehicles must make a U-Turn in Little Heaven to access this exit.
Kent			AT-GRADE INTERSECTION (S.B. ONLY)	At-grade intersection (with traffic light) for private sand quarry company
Kent	93		Dover A.F.B. Main Gate-Visitors	Former at-grade intersection, converted in 1996-97
Kent	95		(Del. 10 West) S. Dover-Camden	U.S. 113 was the former primary road for this exit.
Kent	97		Salisbury Md.-Norfolk Va.	DE 1 S.B. ONLY – direct access to U.S. 13
Kent	2		Bay Road-S. Dover-Dover Air Force Base-Camden	PUNCHEON RUN CONNECTOR EXIT – U.S. 113 was formerly the primary road for this exit.
Kent			AT-GRADE INTERSECTION WITH U.S. 13	PUNCHEON RUN CONNECTOR EXIT
Kent	98		(Del. 8) Downtown Dover-Little Creek	Southbound exit only. Former emergency vehicle access that was converted to exit in 1997.
DOVER TOLL PLAZA – $1.00 auto toll w/ high-speed E-Z Pass lanes
Kent	104		(U.S. 13) N. Dover-Scarborough Road	To Dover International Speedway and Dover Downs racetrack/casino
Kent	114		(U.S. 13) S. Smyrna	Northbound to to Delaware Routes 6 & 300
New Castle	119		(U.S. 13) N. Smyrna-Townsend	North and Southbound – Access to Rest Area; Southbound – access to to Delaware Routes 6 & 300
New Castle			PROPOSED DEL. 71 – TOWNSEND INTERCHANGE	Interchange will provide direct access to Del. 71 at its current southern terminus with U.S. 13 in Blackbird
New Castle	136		(Del. 299) Odessa-Middletown-Townsend	NO TRUCKS OVER 2 AXLES
New Castle	142		(U.S. 13 & Del. 896 North) Mt. Pleasant-Boyds Corner	Current route to U.S. Route 301
BIDDLES CORNER TOLL PLAZA – $1.00 auto toll w/ high-speed E-Z Pass lanes
New Castle			FUTURE U.S. 301 TURNPIKE INTERCHANGE	New toll highway announced by DelDOT on November 14, 2006–Will bypass Middletown and connect with current four-lane highway near Warwick, Maryland
New Castle	148		S. St. Georges	DE 1 S.B. ONLY – access to U.S. 13, via Lorewood Grove Rd. (opened in 1999)
Senator William V. Roth, Jr. Bridge (formerly the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal Bridge)
New Castle	152		(U.S. 13 South & Del. 72) Delaware City-St. Georges-Newark	To To Delaware Routes 7 and 9
Begin – Del. 1/U.S. 13 Concurrency
New Castle	156	96	(U.S. 13 North) New Castle-N.J./N.Y.	Direct access to Del. 71 South from Del. 1 S.B. ONLY, via Exit-156A ramp
End – Del. 1/U.S. 13 Concurrency
New Castle	160	98	(U.S. 40) Elkton Md.-State Road
New Castle	162	99	(Del. 273) Newark-New Castle	To New Castle County Airport
New Castle	164	100	(Del. 7 South) Christiana-Mall Road	Access to Christiana Mall complex
Begin – Del. 1 & 7 Concurrency
New Castle	165	101	Delaware Turnpike-Wilmington-Baltimore (I-95)	To Delaware Memorial Bridge and N.J. Turnpike
End – Del. 1 & 7 Concurrency
End of Del. 1 – Highway continues as Del. 7
New Castle	166		(Del. 58) Churchmans Road-Churchmans Crossing	To Christiana Hospital. Formerly an at-grade intersection.
END OF HIGHWAY

[edit] Future of Delaware Route 1

As the main north-south state highway in Delaware, as well as the primary route to the Atlantic Seashore, Delaware Route 1 is currently seeing major problems with its existing infrastructure, most of which dates back to its 1978 inception. In addition to the building of a new cable-stayed bridge over the Indian River Inlet to replace aging twin box-beam bridges built in the 1970's, DelDOT has been rebuilding Del. Route 1 between Dewey Beach and the Rehoboth Outlets, primarily to give Del. Route 1 a "Main Street" feel, but at the same time, making improvements on underground utilities. At the U.S. Route 9/Delaware Route 404 junction near Lewes, DelDOT is currently undertaking a widening project that will have Del. Route 1 widened to a total of six lanes between the junction and Delaware Route 1A, relieving congestion to both beachgoers and those wishing to shop at the numerous outlet stores that dot the area.

Even on the toll road between Dover and Wilmington, there are plans to widen the highway between Tybouts Corner and I-95/Delaware Turnpike to six lanes, as a need to reduce congestion, as well as rebuilding the Del. Rt. 1/I-95 cloverleaf interchange to one with high-speed ramps, allowing southbound and northbound traffic to access I-95 without having to "mix" in with merging traffic (the new Del. Rt. 58 bridge over I-95/Del. Turnpike, completed in 2006, being long enough to accompany the additional lanes). In addition to the expansion projects, plans are underway to build an "extension" of the highway, which will carry the U.S. Route 301 designation, that will bypass Middletown and allow an alternative route to Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, D.C., via the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, without having to travel on the heavily congested I-95/John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway on Maryland's Western Shore.

Other plans, including rebuilding Del. Route 1 to a "semi-freeway" (similar in nature to U.S. Route 301 in Maryland) have also been floated, but the future currently lies in the the possible privatization of both Del. Route 1 and the Delaware Turnpike, as well as the possible upgrading of the highway to an Interstate Highway route (most likely Interstate 101). If an Interstate 101 is built, it will most likely connect with Delaware Route 1 at Dover A.F.B. (via the short-distanced "Puncheon Run Corridor," a low-speed grade-separated highway connecting Del. Route 1 with U.S. Route 13 near Camden), and with current reductions in federal spending, and may serve as "Maryland-Dover Section" of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, bringing the highway almost up to the same state-to-state classification as that of both the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the New Jersey Turnpike.

[edit] See also

• Delaware Route 7
• U.S. Route 301 Turnpike (Delaware)