U.S. Route 301 in Delaware

Infobox road
state=DE
type=US
route=301
length_mi=14.93
length_round=2
length_ref=http://www.deldot.gov/information/pubs_forms/manuals/traffic_counts/2006/pdf/rpt_pgs1_38_rev.pdf DelDOT 2006 Traffic Count and Mileage Report]
established=1960
direction_a=South
direction_b=North
starting_terminus=
junction=
ending_terminus= "(future)"
previous_type=DE
previous_route=300
next_type=DE
next_route=404
commons=categoryIn the U.S. state of Delaware, U.S. Route 301 runs from U.S. Route 40 in Glasgow to the Maryland state line where it continues as the Blue Star Memorial Highway. The route is mostly a two-lane undivided highway, however there are plans to move it onto a new tolled highway to better connect northern Delaware with Annapolis and points south along Interstate 95, without the need to pass through Baltimore.

Route description

U.S. Route 301 enters Delaware near the town of Warwick, Maryland, where it narrows from the four-lane, divided Blue Star Memorial Highway in Maryland to a two-lane, undivided road in Delaware. It heads to the northeast, joining Delaware Route 299. The two routes continue along Middletown-Warwick Road toward Middletown, with Delaware Route 15 joining in for a three-route concurrency.

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North of the Summit Bridge, U.S. Route 301 passes under Chesapeake City Road. Delaware Route 71 eventually splits off to the east, and US 301 and DE 896 continue north on Summit Bridge Road. They continue to Glasgow, where the route bypasses the town to the east with the former alignment preserved as Delaware Route 896 Business. U.S. Route 301 ends at the intersection with U.S. Route 40 in Glasgow cosigned with Delaware Route 896.

History

U.S. Route 301 was first signed in Delaware in 1960, when it was rerouted from its northern terminus in Baltimore, Maryland to follow U.S. Route 50 from Bowie, Maryland and over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Queenstown, Maryland. US 301 then replaced the four-lane, divided Maryland Route 71 between Queenstown and the Delaware border. It then followed Delaware Route 71 to Middletown, where northbound and southbound US 301 split. Northbound US 301 followed Delaware Route 299 east to Odessa and then U.S. Route 13 north to Interstate 295 at Farnhurst, crossing the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal on the St. Georges Bridge. Southbound US 301 followed US 13 from Farnhurst south to Red Lion. It then followed Delaware Route 71 south to Middletown, crossing the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal on the Summit Bridge. In the 1970s, the alignment of northbound US 301 was changed to follow DE 71 over the Summit Bridge and then Delaware Route 896 north to Glasgow. It then headed east on U.S. Route 40 to State Road where it resumed north on US 13 to Farnhurst. In the 1980s, US 301 was moved to one alignment which followed Delaware Route 896 between DE 71 in Mount Pleasant and US 13 in Boyds Corner and US 13 from Boyds Corner to Farnhurst. Due to structural problems along the St. Georges Bridge, a truck route, U.S. Route 301 Truck was created, following Delaware Route 896 between Mount Pleasant and Glasgow and US 40 between Glasgow and State Road. In 1992, AASHTO approved relocating US 301 to its present alignment which ends at US 40 in Glasgow.

Planned upgrade

The U.S. Route 301 Project is a proposed upgrade, which will replace US 301 with a 17.4-mile, four-lane toll road connecting the existing four-lane U.S. Route 301 in Maryland near Warwick, Maryland to the Delaware Route 1 toll road near St. Georges, Delaware. The road will serve as a high-speed bypass around the cities of Middletown and Newark, Delaware. This proposal is opposed by many in the area, most notably the Middletown Corridor Coalition. The MCC is opposed to the "Spur" on the Rt 301 project feeling that it was added in mid-workshop process and the public was given no alternatives to the Spur. The MCC is working with area legislators to "uncouple" the Spur from the Project and have it as a "stand alone" project. It remains to be seen if this 135 million dollar addition will make it through the ROD process by the FHWA.

On November 13, 2006, DelDOT announced that it has chosen the "green route + spur" option to build the new US 301. The main highway itself will consist of a four-lane, limited access toll road built to the same Interstate Highway standards as that of Route 1 (either a concrete surface with asphalt shoulders or, as a time-saving measure, an all-asphalt surface like that used on the Puncheon Run Connector in Dover) and will have exits for two local roads, as well as Delaware Route 299, the current two-lane U.S. 301 (which is also signed as Delaware Route 71), and Delaware Route 896. A two-lane limited access spur, will connect the main highway with the Summit Bridge at the intersection with Delaware Rts. 71/896 and Delaware Route 15, which connects the Summit Bridge with Chesapeake City, Maryland (via Delaware Route 286).

The northern terminus of the highway will be at Route 1 between the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Bridge and the Biddle's Corner toll plaza, most likely using the existing one-way exit that was constructed in 2000 to provide access to U.S. 13 in South St. Georges, but with provisions to provide complete access to U.S. 301 from Del. Rt. 1 without having to use Del. Rt. 896 as a connector. The "green + spur" option is the lowest cost, and will have minimum impact on property acquisition (35 residential and business properties total, mostly farmland) and would not allow for the demolishing of two local churches. ["DelDOT Picks U.S. 301 Bypass Route," "Wilmington News Journal", November 14, 2006] Thus the location of the exit between the bridge and the toll plaza will allow the U.S. 301 upgrade to serve as a sort-of "Chesapeake Bay Extension" of the Route 1 as well as bringing the original bi-state toll road project back to full circle – the building of two separate toll roads connecting the Washington D.C. metro area with the New Jersey Turnpike, except that the Maryland portions are currently not tolled except at its Susquehanna River/Chesapeake Bay crossings.

History

Plans for a four-lane superhighway connecting the New Jersey Turnpike (via the Delaware Memorial Bridge) with the Washington, D.C. metro area dates back to the opening of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in the mid-1950s. As to provide adequate coverage for the entire Chesapeake Bay region, two separate toll highways, to be jointly operated by both Maryland and Delaware, were proposed. One road would parallel the existing U.S. 301 (then a two-lane road), but this was never built, although U.S. 301 was eventually upgraded to a high-speed four-lane road with both at-grade and grade-separated exits. Another road, to be part of the mainline I-95 route between Maine and Florida, was eventually built, as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway and the Delaware Turnpike, and followed the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore and Washington, D.C., with a spur (I-97) providing access to Annapolis, Maryland. Despite the upgrade of most of U.S. 50 and 301 to freeway standards between Washington, D.C. and Queen Anne's County (which included the building of a parallel span to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge) and upgrading U.S. 301 to four lanes, limited budgets in Delaware, along with local opposition from farmers, prevented the state upgrading U.S. 301 to a four-lane road, although in 1960, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, during a major widening and upgrade of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to its present configuration, built the new four-lane Summit Bridge to freeway standards, with its approaches using a 3% climbing grade instead of the 5% grade used on the nearby Chesapeake City and St. Georges Bridges.

Despite the building of the Summit Bridge, U.S. 301 remained, for most of the last 40 years, as either a two-lane road, or as part of U.S. 13 or U.S. 40 (U.S. 301, which currently ends in Glasgow, originally began at the Delaware Turnpike's Farnhurst interchange in New Castle). In the 1980s, in an effort to provide a bypass around Newark, Delaware, DelDOT proposed building a four-lane highway, signed as U.S. 301, that would bypass Glasgow, connect with the Delaware Turnpike (I-95) south of Newark, and then branch off between the current Delaware Route 896 interchange and the service plaza, via the unbuilt Exit-2 interchange. Because of local opposition, DelDOT, in the 1990s, upgraded the mostly two-lane U.S. 301/Route 896 highway between Boyds Corner and Glasgow to a four-lane divided highway with surface intersections, with a bypass around Glasgow to connect U.S. 301 with U.S. 40, itself also being a surface intersection.

With the surrounding area around Middletown undergoing exponential growth in the 1990s and early 2000s, along with traffic tieups on U.S. 301 and neighboring state highways being common, DelDOT investigated in the resurrecting of the U.S. 301 highway project, but instead of using the original plans in the 1960s, DelDOT instead looked into connecting U.S. 301 with the new Route 1 in St. Georges. In addition, because of the cuts in federal funds to build and maintain highways, along with U.S. 301 being used as a major heavy truck route, DelDOT also looked into building a toll plaza on the Delaware/Maryland State Line (similar to the Newark Toll Plaza on the Delaware Turnpike) in order to collect the needed tolls to fund the costs of the new road.

Junction list

The entire route is in New Castle County.

References

External links

* [http://www.aaroads.com/delaware/us-301.htm AARoads' US 301 page]
* [http://www.deldot.gov/information/projects/us301/ DelDOT's US 301 Project page]
* [http://www.phillyroads.com/roads/US-301_DE Steve Anderson's PhillyRoads.com: US 301 Freeway-Delaware (unbuilt)]