Interstate 495 (Delaware) - History

History

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 rebuilding project between U.S. Route 202 and the Pennsylvania state line.

Although it is the most recent of Delaware's three Interstate Highways, I-495 was rebuilt in the mid-1990s when the concrete surface, developed in France, failed prematurely and had to be totally replaced in sections, resulting in one-lane operations for nearly four years (a similar total rebuilding project had to be done on Delaware Route 141 in Newport in the early 2000s). In addition, the bridge over the Christina River, 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.

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.