Many moons ago, if Delaware had the foresight of population growth south and west of New Castle County, they could have developed an extension of the Delaware Route 1 Turnpike (except that it would parallel US Route 113 south of Milford) and developed an east-west "Sussex County Turnpike" using Delaware Route 404 (become a MD Route 404 expressway to US Route 50 near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge) and US Route 9 (which would hypothetically, connect to US Route 9 and the GSP via a Delaware Bay version of either the Chesapeake Bay Bridge or Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel).
I did some research last summer at the DE Public Archives and they had some far reaching plans back in the 50s and 60s. I don't think they expected the population to explode like it did though. This is my article on some of what I found: ianpeters.org/roads/deroute1.html I've been curious about how development of higher capacity highways on seasonal coastal routes (e.g. DE/MD-404, NJ-55/47/347, US-13/113) can be justified, especially since traffic can be very minimal in the off season as compared to the summer (I'm honestly of the belief that the completion of NJ-55 isn't economically feasible, I certainly don't think it's feasible for a Delaware Bay Bridge Tunnel...I found a study from the 80s that described why). That's a research project I'm in the midst of.
Many moons ago, if Delaware had the foresight of population growth south and west of New Castle County, they could have developed an extension of the Delaware Route 1 Turnpike (except that it would parallel US Route 113 south of Milford) and developed an east-west "Sussex County Turnpike" using Delaware Route 404 (become a MD Route 404 expressway to US Route 50 near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge) and US Route 9 (which would hypothetically, connect to US Route 9 and the GSP via a Delaware Bay version of either the Chesapeake Bay Bridge or Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel).
I did some research last summer at the DE Public Archives and they had some far reaching plans back in the 50s and 60s. I don't think they expected the population to explode like it did though.
This is my article on some of what I found: ianpeters.org/roads/deroute1.html
I've been curious about how development of higher capacity highways on seasonal coastal routes (e.g. DE/MD-404, NJ-55/47/347, US-13/113) can be justified, especially since traffic can be very minimal in the off season as compared to the summer (I'm honestly of the belief that the completion of NJ-55 isn't economically feasible, I certainly don't think it's feasible for a Delaware Bay Bridge Tunnel...I found a study from the 80s that described why). That's a research project I'm in the midst of.