Delaware Route7 (DE7) is a northsouth highway in New Castle County, Delaware that connects U.S. Route 13 (US13) and DE 72 in Wrangle Hill north to the Pennsylvania border near Hockessin, where the road continues into Pennsylvania as State Route3013 (SR3013), intersecting Pennsylvania Route 41 (PA41) at an interchange. Between Wrangle Hill and Christiana, DE7 runs parallel to the west of the DE 1 freeway through suburban areas, passing through Bear. DE7 joins DE1 next to the Christiana Mall and comes to an interchange with Interstate 95 (I-95), where DE1 reaches its northern terminus, before the freeway ends at the DE 58 interchange. After the freeway segment, DE7 continues north as an at-grade road concurrent with DE 4 through Stanton. From Stanton to the Pennsylvania border, DE7 heads northwest through suburban areas, passing through Pike Creek.

What is now DE7 was built as a state highway during the 1920s and 1930s. By 1936, the route was designated to run along its present alignment between US13 near Red Lion and the Pennsylvania border. From the 1950s to the 1970s, DE7 became a divided highway between Christiana and Milltown Road. With the construction of the DE1 freeway in the 1990s, DE7 was shifted to a portion of the freeway near the Christiana Mall. The route was also extended south to an intersection with US13 and DE72 as a result of the relocation of US 13 onto a portion of the freeway. The road also became a divided highway between Milltown Road and DE72 in the 1990s. In 1999, an interchange was built at DE58 as a result of a northward extension of the freeway along DE7. The interchange with I-95 was reconstructed to include flyover ramps in 2013.

Route description

DE7 begins at an intersection with US 13 and DE 72 in the community of Wrangle Hill to the west of the city of Delaware City, where the road continues south as part of US13. From the southern terminus, the route heads north on four-lane divided South Dupont Highway. The road runs between farmland to the west and warehouses to the east, narrowing to two lanes and crossing Norfolk Southern's Reybold Industrial Track railroad line at-grade before passing under the US13/DE 1 freeway without an interchange. After this, DE7 becomes an undivided road called Bear-Corbitt Road, with Old South Dupont Highway branching off to the northeast. The route continues north through woodland and homes, crossing Red Lion Creek before reaching an intersection with DE 71 in Red Lion. The road crosses Norfolk Southern's New Castle Secondary railroad line at-grade and heads into Bear. Here, DE7 widens into a four-lane divided highway as it enters commercial areas and intersects US 40.

After this intersection, the route becomes Bear-Christiana Road and passes through suburban residential development with some farm fields. Farther north, DE7 narrows into a two-lane undivided road. The highway comes to an intersection with DE 273, where it is briefly a four-lane divided highway. A park and ride lot is located at the northeast corner of this intersection. Following this, DE7 becomes East Main Street and narrows into a two-lane undivided road, heading through woods and curving to the northwest as it crosses the Christina River. The route enters Christiana and passes homes, intersecting Old Baltimore Pike. At this point, DE7 turns north onto North Old Baltimore Pike, with the name changing to Stanton-Christiana Road. The route turns east onto four-lane divided Road A and comes to a partial cloverleaf interchange with the DE1 freeway and Mall Road southwest of the Christiana Mall, a super-regional shopping mall that is the largest in Delaware, and adjacent retail development.

At this point, DE7 heads north concurrent with DE1 on a four-lane freeway. The freeway comes to a southbound exit and northbound entrance with Mall Road that serves the Christiana Mall to the east. DE1/DE7 continues to a modified cloverleaf interchange with I-95 (Delaware Turnpike), where DE1 reaches its northern terminus. The I-95 interchange has flyover ramps from northbound DE1 to northbound I-95 and from southbound I-95 to southbound DE1 that includes a ramp to DE7 from the southbound flyover ramp; the flyover ramps split from DE1 south of the DE7 interchange. The road heads through more commercial areas and comes to a partial cloverleaf interchange with DE 58, at which point the freeway segment ends; the DE58 interchange uses the exit numbers from DE1. In the southbound direction, a collector/distributor road serves both DE58 (intersecting that road at-grade) and I-95. Past DE58, DE7 continues north at-grade as six-lane divided Stanton-Christiana Road, heading to the west of the Stanton Campus of Delaware Technical Community College before intersecting DE 4. At this point DE4 turns north for a concurrency with DE7, running through wooded areas with nearby development, including the Hale-Byrnes House, and passing over Amtrak's Northeast Corridor railroad line and the White Clay Creek and Mill Creek near their confluence. The road heads to the east of Delaware Park, which consists of a Thoroughbred horse racetrack, casino, and golf course. Access to Delaware Park is provided by Delaware Park Boulevard. From here, the roadway curves northeast to enter Stanton. At this point, the two routes continue into a commercial area and split into the one-way pair of Mitch Road eastbound and Main Street westbound.

DE7 splits from DE4 by heading northwest on four-lane divided Limestone Road. The road runs through suburban residential neighborhoods, coming to a bridge over CSX's Philadelphia Subdivision railroad line. The route continues into business areas and reaches an intersection with DE 2 in Marshallton. Past this junction, DE7 heads into residential and commercial areas and turns into a four-lane undivided road. The route becomes a divided highway again as it comes to the Milltown Road intersection in the community of Milltown, with a northbound ramp providing access to eastbound Milltown Road and McKennans Church Road. Following this intersection, DE7 enters the Pike Creek area. The road curves west, crossing Mill Creek and passing to the north of Carousel Park, before turning northwest again and running to the southwest of Goldey–Beacom College, a private non-profit college. DE7 curves to the north and comes to an intersection with the northern terminus of DE72.

Following this, the road continues through suburban development. At the junction with Little Baltimore Road/Brackenville Road, the route curves to the northwest and narrows to a three-lane undivided road with one northbound lane and two southbound lanes, heading into the Hockessin area. DE7 turns into a two-lane divided highway as it passes southwest of the Lantana Square shopping center, where a park and pool lot is located, and intersects Valley Road. Past this, the route becomes a two-lane undivided road that runs through fields and residential areas, briefly gaining a northbound truck lane as it climbs a hill. DE7 reaches its northern terminus at the Pennsylvania border, where Limestone Road continues north into that state as SR3013, an unsigned quadrant route that heads to an interchange with PA 41.

The section of DE7 between Old Baltimore Pike in Christiana and DE4 in Stanton is part of the Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route, a National Historic Trail. DE7 has an annual average daily traffic count ranging from a high of 95,797vehicles at the south end of the DE4 concurrency to a low of 3,294vehicles at the Old Baltimore Pike intersection. The portion of DE7 from the south end of the DE1 concurrency north to the Pennsylvania border is part of the National Highway System.

History

What would become DE7 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. DE7 was designated to run from US13 south of Red Lion north to the Pennsylvania border by 1936, following its present alignment. In 1937, the narrow swing bridge over the Christina River in Christiana was replaced with a stone bridge. A concrete tied-arch bridge was built over the White Clay Creek in Stanton in 1941. By 1959, DE7 was widened into a divided highway between Stanton and DE2. The divided highway was extended north to Milltown Road by 1966. By 1985, DE273 was realigned to bypass Christiana, removing it from a portion of DE7 through the town. Also at this time, the route was widened into a divided highway from the Christiana Mall north to Stanton. The route was shifted west to a new alignment passing over the Amtrak tracks and the White Clay Creek.

In the 1980s, a freeway relief route for DE7 was proposed to run between US13 in Tybouts Corner and I-95 in Christiana in order to reduce congestion along DE7. In 1988, this relief route became part of DE1, a freeway connecting the Wilmington area to Dover. The first section of the DE1 freeway opened in August 1991 between US13 in Tybouts Corner and US40 in Bear. Three months later, the freeway opened north to DE273 in Christiana. The section of DE1 between DE273 and I-95 in Christiana opened in April 1993. As a result, DE7 was relocated onto the DE1 freeway for a short distance near the Christiana Mall. The DE1 freeway was extended from US13 in Tybouts Corner to St. Georges in December 1995, in which it incorporated a portion of the existing US13 near Red Lion. US13 was moved to the new freeway between DE72 and Tybouts Corner, and DE7 was extended south along the former alignment of US13 to end at US13 and DE72 in Wrangle Hill. The divided highway portion of DE7 along Limestone Road was extended north from Milltown Road to DE72 by 1999. DE7 from I-95 to north of DE58 became an extension of the freeway in 1999 with an interchange built at DE58 in a $25 million construction project.

The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) reconstructed the cloverleaf interchange at I-95 to include flyover ramps between southbound I-95 and southbound DE1 and northbound DE1 and northbound I-95, aiming to reduce merging and congestion at the interchange. Construction began in 2011 with work to replace the bridge over DE1/DE7 leading to the Christiana Mall in order to allow room for the flyover ramps; this bridge was completed in March 2012. The ramp from southbound I-95 to southbound DE1 opened on August 27, 2013 and the ramp from northbound DE1 to northbound I-95 opened on October 17, 2013, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by Governor Jack Markell and DelDOT secretary Shailen Bhatt. A project widening DE7 to four lanes between Newtown Drive in Bear and DE273 in Christiana was completed in early 2014.

DelDOT is planning to widen DE1 and part of this involves reconstructing its interchange with DE273. One version of the plan involves moving DE7 onto DE1 from DE273 northward and disconnecting East Main Street from the DE273 interchange. New ramps would connect the southbound lanes of DE1 directly to DE7 where East Main Street once did, and the park and ride lot north of DE273 would be removed. Local opposition to this project is strong as the nearby Christina River frequently floods and some local residents would not be able to evacuate. Also the Christiana Fire House is located in the center of Christiana and would not be able to continue directly onto DE7 south, thus adding about and sending trucks onto a frequently congested DE273 east to reach DE7 south. This was later revised to have the ramps to and from the southbound lanes of DE1 merge with DE7 using a roundabout located at the present entrance to the park and ride lot. A public workshop for the widening project was held on October 27, 2021, with the preferred alternative reconstructing the interchange between DE1 and DE273 into a single-point urban interchange and keeping DE7 along its current alignment.

Major intersections

See also

References

External links

• DE

• Delaware Roads - DE