U.S. Route 202 in Delaware

Route description

US 202 begins at a cloverleaf interchange with US 13/US 40 east of the Wilmington Airport, with the road continuing south toward New Castle as DE 141. From the southern terminus, US 202 heads north-northwest concurrent with DE 141 on four-lane divided Basin Road, passing between Wilmington Airport to the west and residential neighborhoods in Wilmington Manor to the east. The road passes between the Delaware Air National Guard's New Castle Air National Guard Base to the west and commercial establishments to the east, coming to an intersection with the northern terminus of DE 37. Past this intersection, the median of US 202/DE 141 widens as the road intersects Airport Road and becomes a freeway. The road comes to an interchange with I-95 and the southern terminus of I-295.

Here, US 202 splits from DE 141 and heads to the east along I-95, an eight-lane freeway with a wide median. I-295 splits off to the east before the freeway curves northeast and interchanges with the southern terminus of I-495. Following this, I-95/US 202 becomes a six-lane freeway and heads through marshland, crossing the Christina River. The freeway comes to a bridge over Norfolk Southern's Shellpot Branch, with Amtrak's Northeast Corridor running a short distance to the northwest. The road enters Wilmington and curves to the north, passing to the west of Frawley Stadium, which is home of the Wilmington Blue Rocks baseball team. I-95/US 202 continues towards downtown Wilmington and crosses onto a viaduct, passing over the Northeast Corridor and coming to an interchange that provides access to the downtown area by way of DE 4 and DE 48.

At this point, the four-lane freeway continues northeast, with one-way northbound North Adams Street to the east and one-way southbound North Jackson Street to the west serving as frontage roads. I-95/US 202 continues through residential areas to the west of downtown Wilmington, passing over DE 9, with a southbound exit. Farther northeast, the freeway heads into an alignment below street level and comes to an interchange with DE 52. Past this interchange, the road continues north and crosses Brandywine Creek, heading through Brandywine Park, which is a part of the Wilmington State Parks complex. The freeway curves northeast again and passes under CSX's Philadelphia Subdivision before reaching an interchange with the northern terminus of DE 202 at the northern edge of Wilmington, at which point US 202 splits from I-95.

Upon splitting from I-95, US 202 heads north on the six-lane divided Concord Pike into the Brandywine Hundred area, passing the Rock Manor Golf Club and Alapocas Run State Park before coming to an interchange with the northern terminus of DE 141 and the southern terminus of DE 261 in Blue Ball. Past this interchange, the road enters Fairfax and passes between AstraZeneca's North American headquarters to the west and businesses to the east. The route continues through commercial areas, heading into Talleyville. At this point, the median of the road widens at the intersection with Garden of Eden Road/Silverside Road. The median narrows again as the road runs curves to the north-northeast. US 202 passes to the west of the Widener University School of Law and the Concord Mall before it reaches an intersection with DE 92 in Brandywine east of the Beaver Valley section of First State National Historical Park. Past this intersection, the route runs between business parks to the west and the Brandywine Town Center shopping center to the east. The road narrows to four lanes as it passes farm fields and homes. US 202 reaches the Pennsylvania border, where it continues into that state as Wilmington West Chester Pike.

US 202 in Delaware has an annual average daily traffic count ranging from a high of 102,035 vehicles at the south end of Wilmington along the I-95 concurrency to a low of 30,807 vehicles at the intersection with Augustine Cut-Off between I-95 and DE 141/DE 261. The portion of US 202 in Delaware from the south end of the I-95 concurrency to the Pennsylvania border is part of the National Highway System.

History

The Wilmington and Great Valley Turnpike Company was chartered on January 23, 1811 to build a turnpike running north from Wilmington along the Concord road, continuing to West Chester and Great Valley in Pennsylvania. Construction on the turnpike progressed throughout the 1810s. The Wilmington and Great Valley Turnpike was known in Delaware as the Concord Pike. The Concord Pike was taken over by New Castle County in 1911, at which point the tolls were removed. A portion of the Concord Pike near Talleyville was incorporated into the state highway system by 1920, with the remainder of the road proposed to become a state highway. By 1924, the Concord Pike between Blue Ball and Talleyville was a state highway, with the remainder remaining a county road. A year later, what is now US 202 along Basin Road was completed as a state highway. When the US Highway System was established in 1926, US 122 was designated to follow the Concord Pike between US 13 (Philadelphia Pike) in Wilmington and the Pennsylvania border, heading north into that state and continuing to US 22 at Whitehouse, New Jersey. On July 1, 1935, the portion of the route between Talleyville and the Pennsylvania border was taken over by the state.

By 1936, US 122 was redesignated US 202. Also at this time, US 202 was realigned in Wilmington to head southwest from Concord Avenue onto Baynard Boulevard, splitting into a one-way pair following Washington Street southbound and West Street northbound as it passed through downtown Wilmington. In this area, US 202 turned east onto Front Street to end at US 13. In 1941, the portion of US 202 along Baynard Boulevard and from Talleyville to the Pennsylvania state line was reconstructed.

In 1953, the portion of US 202 along the Concord Pike between the Wilmington border and Murphy Road was widened into a four-lane divided highway. In September 1953, construction began to widen the portion of US 202 between Murphy Road and Talleyville into a four-lane divided highway. This widening was completed in October 1954. In 1955, recommendations were made to widen US 202 between Talleyville and the Pennsylvania border. The divided highway was extended north from Talleyville to the Pennsylvania border in 1957.

By 1954, US 202 was moved onto a new one-way pair through downtown Wilmington, with the southbound direction splitting from Concord Avenue to follow Baynard Boulevard to Washington Street and the northbound direction following US 13 on one-way Walnut Street and two-way Market Street before heading north onto Concord Avenue. US 202 was extended south along US 13 from downtown Wilmington to an interchange with I-295/US 40 in Farnhurst by 1959. By 1966, the portion of I-95 that currently carries US 202 was completed between DE 141 and downtown Wilmington. I-95 was completed between downtown Wilmington and the Concord Pike in 1969.

In 1970, the southern terminus of US 202 was truncated to the interchange with I-95 north of Wilmington. By 1981, DE 202 was designated along Concord Avenue between US 13 Bus. and I-95, extending south from the southern terminus of US 202. US 202 was extended south to its current terminus at US 13/US 40 near the Wilmington Airport in 1984, following I-95 through Wilmington before heading south along DE 141.

In 1992, plans were made to build an interchange with DE 141 and DE 261 north of I-95; however, plans for the proposed interchange were placed on hold two years later. In 2000, the portion of US 202 between I-95 and DE 141 (Powder Mill Road) was improved, with the alignment shifted to eliminate a few curves, the intersections at DE 261 and DE 141 improved, and a southbound transit lane added. In the 2000s, the Blue Ball Construction Project built an interchange at DE 261 that also relocated the northern terminus of DE 141 from the Powder Mill Road intersection further north. The project took place between 2002 and 2007 and cost $123 million.

In December 2011, a project began to improve the interchange between I-95 and US 202/DE 202 in order to reduce congestion. The project widened the ramp between northbound I-95 and northbound US 202 to two lanes, the ramp between southbound US 202 and southbound I-95 was extended to modern standards, and the ramp between southbound I-95 and southbound DE 202 was relocated from a cloverleaf loop to a directional ramp that intersects DE 202 at a signalized intersection. In addition, the interchange ramps were repaved and bridges were rehabilitated. The project was finished in July 2015, months behind schedule due to the closure of I-495 in 2014. On August 7, 2015, a dedication ceremony to mark the completion of the project was held, with Governor Jack Markell, Senator Tom Carper, and DelDOT secretary Jennifer Cohan in attendance. The project, which cost over $33 million, was 80-percent funded by the federal government.

Major intersections

The entire route is in New Castle County.