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By Nick Roth, Cape Gazette
April 17, 2026
After years of construction, both Route 1 bridges over Route 16 near Milton are open to traffic.
The northbound span opened April 15, almost exactly a year after the southbound bridge opened April 21, 2025.
Work began on the project in 2022, with planning occurring over many years before that. The completion of the bridges means there are no longer any traffic signals between I-95 in New Castle County and Five Points outside Lewes.
Altogether, 36 signalized intersections between I-95 and Five Points near Lewes have been removed since work began on the first section of the Route 13 Relief Route from Tybouts Corner to Churchmans Road in Christiana in July 1987.
The more than $40 million project is expected to be fully completed this summer.
The work north of Five Points to build new roads, including a vehicular path under the Nassau Bridge, is making significant progress. According to DelDOT Director of Community Relations Charles “CR” McLeod, the intersection of Route 1 and Minos Conaway Road will close in May to allow for construction of a new roundabout just west of Route 1.
Once Minos Conaway closes, it will remain closed through the end of the year. However, once the roundabout is completed this summer, southbound Route 1 traffic will be able to access Minos Conaway Road via the new connector road that will run parallel to Route 1 south to Janice Road at the foot of the Nassau Bridge.
Traffic from Minos Conaway will not have access to Route 1, whether to go south or to cross over and travel north. The detour will take drivers west to Route 9.
“In anticipation of ‘Why are they doing this during the summer?’ - We don’t see a spike in traffic on this road in summer months,” said McLeod. “This being a local road, there isn’t a significant fluctuation in traffic volume numbers to warrant delaying the work until later in the year.”
In addition to the Minos Conaway Road roundabout, another roundabout is being constructed just west of the Nassau Bridge near the Lewes Senior Activity Center.
Construction will continue on the road under the Nassau Bridge and all the work on the east side of Route 1, with opening planned for a later time. That work includes another roundabout at the intersection of Nassau Road, New Road and the new under-the-bridge connector road, as well as an access road running parallel to northbound Route 1 in front of businesses such as Meineke and Surfing Crab, among others.
DelDOT crews have been out this week clearing the land surrounding the Cave Neck Road intersections with Hudson Road and Sweetbriar Road south of Milton. It is the first step of a project to build a five-legged roundabout. Once the clearing is complete, utility location will begin this summer. Construction of the actual roundabout is expected to begin in 2027 and be completed by the end of that year.
Sussex County fronted $5 million to DelDOT to speed up improvements at the intersections. In 2021, current DelDOT Secretary Shanté Hastings, who was chief engineer at the time, said because of the funding, construction of this project will now occur when it was originally scheduled to begin its design phase under the previous capital transportation program.
Just a few miles east, design is underway for a grade-separated intersection at Cave Neck Road and Route 1. If the project progresses along its estimated timeline, construction is expected to begin in summer 2027 and finish in fall 2029.
Completion of the final phase of the Lewes-to-Georgetown Trail is expected to occur near the end of 2026. When it’s finished, the 17-mile pedestrian/bike trail will offer a continuous connection between Lewes and Georgetown. The path was built on the former Delaware Coast Line Railroad bed between Lewes and Harbeson, and adjacent to the railroad tracks between Harbeson and Georgetown.
The first phase of the trail was completed in October 2016. As of today, the trail runs uninterrupted from the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal in Lewes to Stephen P. Hudson Park in Cool Spring. A portion of the trail is also completed on the Georgetown end. The final section runs from Fisher Road in Cool Spring to Airport Road in Georgetown. However, McLeod said a section of soon-to-be-completed trail from Fisher Road to Harbeson Road is expected to open this summer.
For updates on these and other DelDOT projects, go to deldot.gov/projects.
