Interstate 495 (Delaware)

Infobox road
state=DE
route=495
type=I

---

length_mi=11.47
length_round=2
length_ref= [http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/reports/routefinder/table2.htm Route Log- Auxiliary Routes of the Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways - Table 2] ]
year_established=1970s
direction_a=South
terminus_a=Jct|state=DE|I|95|US|202|I|295 in Newport
junction=Jct|state=DE|US|13
direction_b=North
terminus_b=Jct|state=DE|I|95|DE|92 in Claymont
previous_type=DE
previous_route=491
next_type=Interstate
next_route=895
commons=category

Interstate 495 (abbreviated I-495) in Delaware is a six-lane bypass of Interstate 95 around the city of Wilmington, Delaware. Built in the mid-1970s and opened as the "Wilmington Bypass", the highway became, between 1978 and 1982, the route of I-95 around Wilmington, while the original highway through the city, redesignated as Interstate 895, was reconstructed at the Wilmington Viaduct. In 1982, I-95 was rerouted back onto the original highway, and the bypass became I-495 again. A similar occurrence happened in 2000 when I-95 was closed off for a total rebuild project between U.S. Route 202 and the Pennsylvania state line.

, at the Port of Wilmington, suffered severe damage when a truck went over the side of the bridge and exploded on impact, damaging support beams, and forcing traffic onto I-95, creating traffic snarls on the four-lane highway.

As a major bypass, officials in the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) has encouraged through traffic (by placing the "Baltimore" and "Philadelphia" control cities on its green signs) to use I-495 instead of I-95, as it has six lanes and a higher speed limit (65 mph instead of 55 mph on I-95). Since 2000, DelDOT officials have proposed rerouting I-95 back onto I-495 in the same arrangement used between 1978 and 1982, and renaming the current I-95 through Wilmington as Business 95, like that on Interstate 83 in York, Pennsylvania. The mayor of Wilmington staunchly rejected the proposal.

Exit list

The entire route is in New Castle County.

References