Delaware Turnpike - Design

Design

Originally opened with a total of four travel lanes (two in each direction), the highway currently has a total of eight travel lanes between the mainline toll plaza and the Del. Turnpike–DE 1/DE 7 interchange, and ten travel lanes (five in each direction) between the DE 1/DE 7 interchange and the triple interchange with I-295, the I-95 freeway to Wilmington, Delaware, and I-495 to the Port of Wilmington and Philadelphia, making it one of the widest roadways in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area (a distinction held by I-76 between the Walt Whitman Bridge and I-295 and New Jersey Route 42 in Camden, New Jersey). A short three-lane section of the highway exists between the mainline toll plaza and the Maryland state line, but with the planned toll plaza total rebuild project, both DelDOT and the MdTA have plans of expanding their corresponding highways between the toll plaza and Maryland Route 279 to eight lanes, eliminating traffic snarls that plague the highway.

The fifth lane, added in 2008, is part of an expansion project that was started by DelDOT in 2005 with the eventual goal of rebuilding the Del. Turnpike–DE 1/DE 7 interchange from its current "classic cloverleaf" configuration to a new configuration featuring multi-lane high-speed (45–55 miles per hour, 72–89 km/h) flyover ramps similar in nature to the flyover ramps being designed for the proposed interchange between I-95 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike near Bristol, Pennsylvania. Since the opening of the added lanes in fall 2008, DelDOT has been able to better handle heavy traffic between Wilmington and Churchmans Crossing during peak travel times, although some traffic backups still occur due to the ramp restrictions.