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New Route 1 overpass in Little Heaven to open next week

DelDOT
A $40 million roadwork project along Route 1 in Little Heaven is one big step closer to completion.

Motorists who have been fighting traffic tie-ups on Route 1 through Little Heaven since November 2015 are about to get relief.

 

The new Little Heaven overpass on Route 1 is scheduled to open next week.

DelDOT says that Route 1 traffic will shift to the bypass over Bowers Beach Road starting Monday.

“Monday evening we’re going to be first be shifting the northbound traffic on to the new alignment. So by Tuesday morning, northbound traffic will be on the new alignment that now will take you up and over that existing intersection there at Bowers Beach Road in Little Heaven," said DelDOT communications director C.R. McLeod.

 

He says southbound traffic will be shifted to the new alignment on Tuesday night.

McLeod adds that the traffic light currently at Bowers Beach Road will no longer  have an impact on traffic heading to or from the beaches.

“In fact, now motorists will be able travel from the Christiana Mall up in New Castle County all the way to the Route 16 intersection in Milton without hitting any signalized intersections. That’s more than 71 miles,” McLeod said.

McLeod says the entire $40 million project is scheduled for completion by early summer.

He notes the contractor, A-Del Construction, still has some work to do on local roads in the area, including paving, curbing and drainage.

 

McLeod adds that with next week’s traffic shift, motorists who wish to get on Bowers Beach and Barratts Chapel Roads will have to take the new Exit 88.

 

He says DelDOT us putting up signs guiding north- and southbound motorists who may be confused with the new traffic pattern.

 

The Little Heaven project is just one piece of a $114 million DelDOT's six district improvement Corridor Capacity Preservation Program.

 

 
 

Kelli Steele has over 30 years of experience covering news in Delaware, Baltimore, Winchester, Virginia, Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California.