History
What would become DE 7 originally existed as a county road by 1920. By 1924, the road was paved between Christiana and Stanton and was upgraded to a state highway between Capitol Trail and New Linden Hill Road. A year later, the road was upgraded to a state highway between Bear and Christiana and between Paper Mill Road and Brackenville Road, with all the sections south of Bear, between New Linden Hill Road and Paper Mill Road and Brackenville Road and the Pennsylvania border proposed as a state highway. By 1931, these sections of state highway had been completed. When Delaware assigned state highway numbers by 1936, DE 7 was designated to run from US 13 south of Red Lion north to the Pennsylvania border, following its present alignment. By 1959, DE 7 was widened into a divided highway between Stanton and DE 2. The divided highway was extended north to Milltown Road by 1966. By 1985, DE 273 was realigned to bypass Christiana, removing it from a portion of DE 7 through the town. Also at this time, DE 7 was widened into a divided highway from the Christiana Mall north to Stanton.
By 1988, a limited-access highway paralleling DE 7 south of I-95 was under construction, which was to become part of the DE 1 freeway connecting the Wilmington area to Dover. By 1990, this freeway was completed between US 13 in Tybouts Corner and DE 273 in Christiana, at which point it became part of DE 1. By 1994, the freeway was extended north to I-95, with DE 7 being relocated onto this freeway along with DE 1 for a short distance near the Christiana Mall. The DE 1 freeway was extended from US 13 in Tybouts Corner to St. Georges by 1996, in which it incorporated a portion of the existing US 13 near Red Lion. As a result, US 13 was moved to the new freeway between DE 72 and Tybouts Corner, and DE 7 was extended south along the former alignment of US 13 to end at US 13 and DE 72 to the west of Delaware City. The divided highway portion of DE 7 was extended north from Milltown Road to DE 72 by 1999. DE 7 from I-95 to north of DE 58 became an extension of the DE 1 freeway in 1999 with an interchange built at DE 58.
The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) is reconstructing the cloverleaf interchange at I-95 to include flyover ramps between southbound I-95 and southbound DE 1/DE 7 and northbound DE 1/DE 7 and northbound I-95, aiming to reduce merging and congestion at the interchange. Construction began in 2011 with work to replace the bridge over DE 1/DE 7 leading to the Christiana Mall in order to allow room for the flyover ramps; this bridge was completed in March 2012. Completion of the entire project expected in the later part of 2013.
Read more about this topic: Delaware Route 7
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