U.S. Route 113 In Delaware

U.S. Route 113 (US 113) is a U.S. Highway that is a spur of US 13 in the U.S. states of Maryland and Delaware. The route runs from US 13 in Pocomoke City, Maryland, north to Delaware Route 1 (DE 1) in Milford, Delaware. In conjunction with DE 1, US 113 is one of two major north–south highways on the Delmarva Peninsula (with US 13) that connect Dover with Pocomoke City and the Eastern Shore of Virginia. The U.S. Highway is the primary north–south highway in Worcester County, Maryland, where it connects Pocomoke City with Snow Hill and Berlin. US 113 is one of three major north–south highways in Sussex County, Delaware, where it connects Selbyville, Millsboro, and Georgetown with Milford. While US 113 does not pass through Ocean City or the Delaware Beaches, the U.S. Highway intersects several highways that serve the Atlantic seaboard resorts, including US 50, Maryland Route 90 (MD 90), US 9, DE 404, DE 16, and DE 1. US 113 is a four-lane divided highway for its whole length.

US 113 follows the corridor of a post road established in the late 18th century to connect the aforementioned towns on the Delmarva Peninsula with Wilmington and Philadelphia. The highway was improved as an all-weather road in the 1910s. In Maryland, the post road was designated one of the original state roads established by the Maryland State Roads Commission (MDSRC) in 1909. In Delaware, the highway was the Selbyville–Dover portion of the DuPont Highway, a roadway whose construction was a grand philanthropic measure of Thomas Coleman DuPont. The DuPont Highway, which was started by DuPont's company and finished by the Delaware State Highway Department (DSHD), spurred economic growth in the tourism and agriculture sectors in southern Delaware. The economic growth resulted in heavy traffic; US 113 was widened in both states in the early 1930s and again in the late 1940s. Bypasses of Dover and Pocomoke City were built in the mid-1930s; the bypassed section of highway in Dover became US 113 Alternate.

Expansion of US 113 to a divided highway began in the 1950s in Dover. Much of the remainder of the U.S. Highway in Delaware was expanded in the 1960s; the final section of two-lane US 113 in that state was expanded in the mid-1990s. The Berlin bypass became the first section of US 113 in Maryland to be expanded to a divided highway in the mid-1950s. In the early 1970s, US 113 between Pocomoke City and Snow Hill was expanded to a divided highway and the Snow Hill bypass was constructed, replacing what would become US 113 Business. The U.S. Highway between Berlin and the Delaware state line was expanded to a divided highway around 2000. The Maryland State Highway Administration (MDSHA) upgraded the last remaining two-lane portions of US 113 between Snow Hill and Berlin to a four-lane divided highway, with completion in 2019. US 113's northern terminus was moved to Milford in 2004 after the U.S. Highway was superseded by DE 1 from Milford to Dover. The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) plans to upgrade US 113 to a freeway in some areas. Originally, there had been plans to upgrade it all from Selbyville to Ellendale, but freeway bypasses of Milford and Millsboro were cancelled or altered due of community opposition.

Route description

US 113 serves as an important route carrying local and through traffic along with tourist traffic bound for the Delaware Beaches and Ocean City, Maryland, to the east; as such the highway experiences congestion in the summer months when tourism to the beach areas is at its highest. Access from US 113 to the beach areas is provided by US 9, DE 404, and DE 16 toward Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, and Dewey Beach; DE 26 toward Bethany Beach; DE 54 toward Fenwick Island; MD 90 toward northern Ocean City; US 50 toward downtown Ocean City; and MD 376 toward Assateague Island. US 113 also serves as a part of a primary hurricane evacuation route from the beach communities to inland areas to the north. In 2016, US 113 had an annual average daily traffic count ranging from a high of 38,505 vehicles at the US 9 intersection in Georgetown to a low of 6,070 vehicles between the southern terminus of US 113 Business and MD 12 in Snow Hill. All of US 113 is part of the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility.

Maryland

US 113 has a length of in Maryland, where the route is named Worcester Highway. The highway extends the north–south length of Worcester County and serves three of the county's four towns: Pocomoke City, Snow Hill, and Berlin. US 50 connects US 113 with the county's fourth town, Ocean City. Between Snow Hill and Berlin, the U.S. Highway is part of the Cape to Cape Scenic Byway, a Maryland Scenic Byway that comprises several highways in Worcester County.

Pocomoke City to Snow Hill

US 113 begins at the city limit of Pocomoke City at an intersection with US 13 (Ocean Highway), the main highway of the Delmarva Peninsula that connects Wilmington and Dover with Salisbury and Norfolk. Old Virginia Road (unsigned MD 250A) continues west to US 13 Business (Market Street). US 13 Business heads north through the Pocomoke City Historic District, which preserves buildings from Pocomoke City's late 19th century and early 20th century heyday as a river port and station on the main rail line of the Delmarva Peninsula.

US 113 heads northeast from US 13 as a four-lane divided highway and intersects American Legion Drive (unsigned MD 359B), which leads to MD 359 (Bypass Road). The U.S. Highway crosses Town Branch, a tributary of the Pocomoke River, and leaves the Pocomoke City area after intersecting MD 756 (Old Snow Hill Road). US 113 parallels the left bank of the Pocomoke River and crosses many streams that drain into the river, including Pilchard Creek, Bachelors Branch, Mataponi Creek, Corkers Creek, and Hardship Branch. US 113 passes through Pocomoke State Forest, which preserves loblolly pine stands and bald cypress swamps along the Maryland Scenic River; by the Pocomoke River Wildlife Management Area, in which dove hunting regularly occurs; and by the Shad Landing unit of Pocomoke River State Park, which offers boating, fishing, and a nature center.

Northeast of the state park entrance, US 113 Business (Market Street) splits to the northeast to directly serve the town of Snow Hill, which is the county seat of Worcester County and contains several museums and colonial era buildings of the river port at the head of navigation of the Pocomoke River. US 113 bypasses the town to the south and east, coming to a northbound weigh station a short distance past the US 113 Business intersection, and intersects MD 12 (Snow Hill Road), which connects Snow Hill with e Salisbury and Stockton, and MD 365 (Public Landing Road). The MD 365 junction is a superstreet intersection; MD 365 traffic must turn right, use U-turn ramps along US 113, and turn right again to continue on MD 365. North of MD 365, the highway crosses Purnell Branch of the Pocomoke River. US 113 has a grade crossing with the Snow Hill Line of the Maryland and Delaware Railroad and turns northeast again as the highway receives the other end of US 113 Business.

Snow Hill to Berlin

US 113 continues northeast, crosses Poorhouse Branch of the Pocomoke River, and passes west of Worcester Technical High School. North of its crossing of Five Mile Branch, the highway veers away from the Pocomoke River and enters the Atlantic seaboard watershed US 113 parallels the rail line before it intersects the rail line at an oblique grade crossing at Newark Road and crosses Marshall Creek, which flows into Newport Bay. The highway passes to the south of the village of Newark, which contains the Queponco Railway Station, a preserved Pennsylvania Railroad station. Further north, US 113 crosses Massey Branch. The highway crosses Porter Creek and Goody Hill Branch of Bassett Creek and passes through Ironshire, which contains the Federal-style plantation home Simpson's Grove.

US 113 crosses Poplartown Branch of Beaverdam Creek, passes the historic Italianate-style plantation home Merry Sherwood, and enters the town of Berlin at its southern junction with MD 818 (Main Street). MD 818 heads north through the Berlin Commercial District, which contains several museums and preserves buildings from the late 19th century when Berlin was at the intersection of two railroad lines. East of the town center, US 113 crosses Hudson Branch of Trappe Creek and intersects MD 376 (Bay Street) and MD 346 (Old Ocean City Boulevard). The U.S. Highway passes west of Atlantic General Hospital as it leaves the town of Berlin just south of its cloverleaf interchange with US 50 (Ocean Gateway), which connects Ocean City with Salisbury and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. North of the interchange, within which the highways cross Kitts Branch, US 113 meets the northern end of MD 818 as it begins to closely parallel the Snow Hill Line.

Berlin to Selbyville

US 113 closely parallels the railroad west of Friendship to north of its right-in/right-out junction with MD 575 (Worcester Highway), an interchange only accessible to the northbound U.S. Highway. The route leaves the railroad track and meets MD 90 (Ocean City Expressway) at a partial cloverleaf interchange; MD 90 connects the northern part of Ocean City with US 50 west of Berlin. US 113 continues north to its interchange with the northern end of MD 575 and MD 589 (Racetrack Road), which leads to Ocean Pines and Ocean Downs, a harness racing track with a casino. The exit ramp from northbound US 113 intersects MD 575 a short distance south of its intersection with MD 589, and the southbound ramps connect with West Frontage Road (unsigned MD 575A), which serves St. Martin's Episcopal Church.

US 113 continues through Showell, where the U.S. Highway crosses Church Branch, Middle Branch, and Birch Branch; these three streams together form Shingle Landing Prong of the St. Martin River, which empties into Isle of Wight Bay, a lagoon on the west side of Ocean City. Within Showell, the highway parallels Old US 113 (unsigned MD 575B), which is accessed at its south end with a right-in/right-out junction with southbound US 113 and full access via Shingle Landing Road. US 113 intersects MD 367 (Bishopville Road) at Bishop and has an oblique grade crossing with the rail line, then the route intersects the east end of MD 610 (Whaleyville Road). The U.S. Highway crosses Carey Branch, which flows into the Bishopville Prong of the St. Martin River, before it enters Delaware at the Transpeninsular Line, one of the lines surveyed as part of the 18th-century Penn–Calvert boundary dispute.

Delaware

US 113 has a length of in Delaware, where the route is named DuPont Boulevard. The highway extends the north–south length of Sussex County and into far southern Kent County. US 113 runs from Selbyville at the Maryland state line north to Milford, a city that lies in both Sussex and Kent counties. Between those municipalities, US 113 serves the towns of Frankford, Dagsboro, Millsboro, Georgetown, and Ellendale. The U.S. Highway intersects several east–west highways that connect US 113 with the Delaware beach towns to the east, including Lewes, Reboboth Beach, Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, and Fenwick Island. The following includes a description of US 113's former course from Milford to Dover, most of which is now solely DE 1.

Selbyville to Georgetown

US 113 enters Sussex County to the east of the Great Cypress Swamp in the town of Selbyville, which was a center of strawberry production from the 19th century to the 1930s. The highway crosses Sandy Branch and intersects DE 54 (Cemetery Road/Cypress Road), which heads east to Fenwick Island. The U.S. Highway heads north parallel to the Maryland and Delaware Railroad to the town of Frankford, which was founded around a country store and the site of the Gothic Revival home of Captain Ebe Chandler. The highway crosses Vines Creek, the southernmost of several Indian River tributaries the route crosses, and passes along the western edge of the town. US 113 continues northwest parallel to the rail line, which north of Frankford is operated by the Delmarva Central Railroad as the Indian River Subdivision line.

US 113 next comes to the town of Dagsboro, which is named for French and Indian War and American Revolutionary War general and major Sussex County landowner John Dagworthy. The highway crosses Pepper Creek and intersects DE 26 (Clayton Street/Nine Foot Road), which heads east to Bethany Beach, while it passes through the western fringe of the town. North of Dagsboro, US 113 crosses Whartons Branch before it intersects DE 20 (Dagsboro Road); the U.S. Highway and state highway run concurrently through the town of Millsboro, which was named for the cluster of mills around the head of navigation of the Indian River. The highways cross Iron Branch before they intersect DE 24/ DE 30 (Laurel Road/Washington Street) west of the town center. After crossing Betts Pond, DE 20 splits to the northwest as Hardscrabble Road as US 113 itself turns northwest toward the hamlet of Stockley. North of Stockley, US 113 intersects the western terminus of DE 24 Alternate (Speedway Road) west of Georgetown Speedway and passes west of the Sussex Correctional Institution.

US 113 enters the town of Georgetown, which was founded as a more central county seat for Sussex County in 1791, at its junction with South Bedford Street, which is marked US 9 Truck and DE 404 Truck. The truck routes, which bypass the downtown area of Georgetown, join US 113 to return to their respective mainline highways on the west side of downtown. US 9 Truck ends at the intersection with US 9 (County Seat Highway/Market Street) on the west side of Georgetown. Along with DE 404, US 9 heads east toward Delaware Coastal Airport, the original county seat of Lewes, the Cape May–Lewes Ferry, Rehoboth Beach, and Dewey Beach. North of the center of town, US 113 intersects DE 18/DE 404 (Seashore Highway/Bridgeville Road), which head west toward Bridgeville and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The U.S. Highway meets North Bedford Street at the north town limit of Georgetown, where it passes east of a park and pool lot located at a church.

Georgetown to Milford

US 113 continues northwest through Redden State Forest, whose loblolly pines occupy several disjoint tracts between Georgetown and Ellendale. The state forest originated as a Pennsylvania Railroad hunting preserve in the early 20th century, and the hunting lodge, forester's house, and stable is preserved and today used as the Redden Forest Education Center east of the hamlet of Redden. In this community, the road has an intersection with Redden Road. The U.S. Highway also passes near McColley's Chapel and crosses Gravelly Branch, one of the headwaters of the Nanticoke River, north of Redden. US 113 curves north and passes by the Ellendale State Forest Picnic Facility, a picnic area accessible from the northbound direction that the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed in the late 1930s for tourists and long-distance travelers. West of the town of Ellendale, which flourished in the late 19th century as a railroad town at the junction of perpendicular rail lines, the highway intersects DE 16 (Beach Highway/Milton Ellendale Highway) and passes Teddy's Tavern, which was built in 1923 as the Blue Hen Garage to serve travelers on the DuPont Highway.

North of Ellendale, US 113 enters the Delaware Bay watershed; the highway crosses Cedar Creek to the west of Hudson Pond and passes to the west of the unincorporated community of Lincoln at the intersection with Fitzgeralds Road/Johnson Road. The highway continues into the city of Milford, which was founded in the early 19th century at the head of navigation of the Mispillion River whose antebellum buildings, late 19th-century buildings, and shipbuilding heritage are preserved, respectively, in the North Milford, South Milford and Milford Shipyard Area historic districts. US 113 intersects DE 36 (Shawnee Road/Lakeview Avenue) on the southwest side of town before crossing the river into Kent County between two of its impoundments, Silver Lake to the east and Haven Lake to the west. The highway has a grade crossing of the Delmarva Central Railroad's Indian River Subdivision track and a junction with DE 14 (Milford Harrington Highway/Northwest Front Street). On the north side of Milford, US 113 passes the historic Walnut Farm and heads east of a park and pool lot at a local business before it intersects DE 1 Business (North Walnut Street) obliquely. DE 1 Business joins US 113 in a short concurrency that ends when both the state business loop and the U.S. Highway reach their respective northern termini at a partial interchange with DE 1. There is no direct access from northbound US 113 to southbound DE 1 or from northbound DE 1 to southbound US 113.

Former route from Milford to Dover

Until 2003, US 113 continued north from Milford concurrently with DE 1 along four-lane divided Bay Road to Dover. Soon after US 113 joined DE 1, the roadway crossed Swan Creek to the east of Tub Mill Pond. The route headed north and intersected Thompsonville Road before crossing Old Baptist Church Branch. The U.S. Highway crossed the Murderkill River while passing to the east of the town of Frederica. At the north end of Frederica, the highway met the eastern end of DE 12 (Frederica Road). US 113 passed by historic Barratt's Chapel, the birthplace of Methodism in the United States. The highway intersected Bowers Beach Road before it met the southern end of US 113 Alternate (Clapham Road) at a Y intersection in the village of Little Heaven. US 113 crossed the St. Jones River on the Barkers Landing Bridge and curved northwest at its intersections with the southern end of DE 9 (Bayside Drive) and the western end of Kitts Hummock Road. The highway became a freeway along the edge of Dover Air Force Base. US 113 had a diamond interchange with Old Lebanon Road, which served the Main Gate of the air force base to the northeast and base housing to the southwest. At the next interchange, a partial cloverleaf interchange with the eastern end of DE 10 (Lebanon Road) next to the military base's North Gate, US 113 exited onto Bay Road while DE 1 continued on the Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway. The U.S. Highway had ramps from northbound US 113 to northbound DE 1, from southbound US 113 to southbound DE 1, and from southbound DE 1 to US 113 just south of its partial interchange with the Puncheon Run Connector freeway, which connected DE 1 and US 113 with US 13 on the south side of Dover. US 113 entered the city of Dover and passed between the DelDOT headquarters and the Blue Hen Corporate Center, which was transformed into a corporate center from the defunct Blue Hen Mall in 1995. The route intersected Court Street (named Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard since 2013)/South Little Creek Road, with Court Street heading west to the Dover Green Historic District and Delaware Legislative Hall, before reaching its northern terminus at a Y intersection with US 13 and the northern end of US 113 Alternate (DuPont Highway).

History

Predecessor roads

The original highway along much of the US 113 corridor was a post road established in the late 18th century that connected Horn Town on the Eastern Shore of Virginia with Snow Hill, Berlin, Selbyville, Georgetown, Milford, and Dover, ultimately leading to Wilmington and Philadelphia. Milner, p. 4. The Dover–Milford portion of the post road followed the King's Highway established in the late 17th century to connect Dover with Lewes, the original county seat of Sussex County. South of Milford, the post road followed a stage road from Dover to Dagsboro constructed to connect the new county seat of Georgetown with Dover in the 1790s. A 1796 act of the Delaware General Assembly called for surveying a straighter clear path in Sussex County from Milford through Georgetown and Dagsboro to the Maryland state line, a highway that became known as the State Road by the mid-19th century. Milner, p. 5. In Maryland, the post road followed what is now MD 12 from the Virginia state line through Stockton to Snow Hill and the Old Stage Road from north of Showell to the Delaware state line, and a separate road connected Pocomoke City and Snow Hill. By 1898, the dirt road from Pocomoke City to Berlin via Snow Hill was the main thoroughfare of Worcester County.

With few exceptions, these roads remained rudimentary and were impassible in bad weather and a nuisance in good weather, which limited the economic possibilities of those regions of Delaware and Maryland. The Good Roads Movement in the 1890s and 1900s spurred investment and advocacy for constructing all-weather roads that connected the population centers of the states, although the instigating forces in each state were different. Milner, pp. 4, 5. State agencies in Maryland spearheaded the tasks of studying the issues and recommending increasingly effective courses of action. In Delaware, it was the philanthropic measure of a worldly man of one of Delaware's leading families that brought good roads to much of the state.

Maryland state roads

The Maryland Geological Survey was formed in 1896 to study the state's natural resources. Within two years, the agency determined that road building was an area that required extensive study and promotion, so the agency requested and received authorization from the Maryland General Assembly to create a Highway Division to study the state of highways in Maryland and propose engineering and legislative solutions to the state's transportation problems. One of those solutions passed by the General Assembly was the 1904 State Aid Highway Law, also known as the Shoemaker Law, which offered the counties and municipalities expert advice and technical assistance from the Maryland Geological Survey and funding for one half of the cost of macadam roads constructed by the county. The first improved highways along what became US 113 in Worcester County were constructed under the provisions of the 1904 law. Worcester County constructed three mile-long macadam roads that became US 113 with state aid: from the south town limit of Berlin to Hayes Landing Road in 1907, from the east town limit of Snow Hill to Purnells Mill Pond in 1907 and 1908, and from the north town limit of Berlin toward Showell in 1909 and 1910.

However, as in the remainder of the state, the State Aid Road Law was insufficient to form a statewide or even countywide network of all-weather roads, so in 1908 the General Assembly passed the State Road Law, which established the Maryland SRC to take over the state-aid support of the Maryland Geological Survey's Highway Division and construct, using state or state-contracted forces, a statewide system of roads to connect Baltimore and the state's county seats to each other. The system proposed in 1909 included the Pocomoke City–Snow Hill and Snow Hill–Berlin roads. Due to a lack of satisfactory contractor bids, the Maryland SRC contracted Worcester County forces to construct the state road between Snow Hill and Berlin. The county began constructing a macadam road between the ends of the state-aid sections in 1910. The section from Snow Hill to Newark was completed in 1911, and the remainder to Berlin was completed the following year.

Construction on the Pocomoke City–Snow Hill road was started from the Pocomoke City end in 1911. The first three sections were completed as macadam roads from Pocomoke City east to Outens Entrance in 1911, from Snow Hill west to Hardship Branch in 1912, and from Outens Entrance to Betheden Church in 1914. The final section, from Betheden Church to Hardship Branch, was constructed as a concrete road. The highway from the state-aid section on the north side of Berlin to Showell was constructed as a concrete road in 1917 and 1918. A concrete road was built north from Showell along a new alignment to tie in with the southern end of the DuPont Highway at Selbyville in 1921. By 1923, the town of Snow Hill resurfaced its Main Street and turned it over to the Maryland SRC, and Berlin gave its concrete Main Street to the state for maintenance, completing the highway from Pocomoke City to the Delaware state line.

DuPont Highway

The Delaware General Assembly approved a state-aid road law in 1903, but the law was repealed in 1905. Instead, the driving force for the construction of what became the Delaware portion of US 113 was Thomas Coleman DuPont, who offered to fund and construct a modern highway from Selbyville to Wilmington as a philanthropic measure. Inspired by the great boulevards of Europe and cognizant of the need for a main north–south highway as the backbone of a well-laid-out system of roads in Delaware, DuPont envisioned a right-of-way that contained a high-speed automobile highway flanked by dual trolley tracks, roadways for heavy vehicle traffic, unpaved roadways for horses above buried utility lines, and sidewalks at the outer edge of the right-of-way. The construction costs of the road would be recovered by trolley franchises and utility line rentals. After sections of the highway were built, they would be turned over without charge to the state, which would maintain the road. Milner, pp. 6, 8.

Despite these grand visions, in the end the DuPont Highway was constructed in Sussex County as a wide concrete roadway on the proposed right-of-way. Milner, p. 13. The Delaware General Assembly passed the Boulevard Corporation Act of 1911, which authorized the formation of Coleman DuPont Road, Inc., to acquire land and construct a highway the length of the state. Construction of the first section of the highway began near Selbyville on September 18, 1911. By 1912, construction was interrupted by litigation challenging both the constitutionality of the law establishing the road building corporation and the need for DuPont to acquire such a large right-of-way. DuPont offered to make concessions, such as agreeing to pay up to five times the assessed value of a farmer's land five years after the road's completion and reducing the width of the corridor of land to be acquired to . Milner, p. 10. Construction on the highway resumed in 1915 after the litigation had taken its course. The first two sections of the highway, from Selbyville to Georgetown and from Georgetown to the Appenzellar farm south of Milford, were completed on May 24, 1917.

The Delaware General Assembly created the DSHD in 1917 to lay out, construct, and maintain highways and to meet organizational requirements to receive federal aid through the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916. On July 20, 1918, DuPont reached an agreement with the state of Delaware for the newly formed DSHD to construct the remaining sections of the highway. DuPont would dissolve Coleman DuPont Road, Inc., and finance the remainder of construction up to , which is equivalent to in . The highway department would complete the road to Milford along the lines designed by DuPont's company. DSHD would both design and construct the DuPont Highway north of Milford; the department decided on a right-of-way for future sections of the highway. The portions from north of Ellendale to north of Milford, from Frederica to Little Heaven, and through Rising Sun were completed by 1920. All other portions of the DuPont Highway between Ellendale and Dover were under construction in 1920 and completed by 1923, the same year the last section of the entire Selbyville–Wilmington highway was completed near Odessa. Milner, p. 16.

Despite DuPont's grand boulevard not coming to fruition, he was a visionary who implemented key practices before they became standard in the decades after he initiated his project. After his death in 1930, DuPont was recognized for foreseeing that traffic on highways would approach the speed and volume of railroads and planning with provisions for future needs. Based on that vision, he designed his highway with a wide right-of-way and curves and grades adequate for high-speed traffic. The DuPont Highway was also innovative as one of the earliest roads to be constructed on a new alignment that passed close to towns but not directly through them, a development that was more convenient for through traffic and less disruptive to a town's residents. Milner, p. 14. Up to that point, the use of bypasses had been limited to the railroads. South of Milford, the DuPont Highway was constructed entirely on new alignment except from Bedford Street north of Georgetown to Old State Road at Redden. The portion of the highway north of Milford, which DSHD designed, mostly overlaid the existing Milford–Dover highway. The two exceptions were through Frederica, where the State Road used Market Street, and between Milford and Frederica, where the State Road followed Jenkins Pond Road, Reynolds Road, Pritchett Road, and Milford Neck Road.

Widening and early bypasses

The DuPont Highway was a boon to southern Delaware, which had formerly been economically isolated from the large cities of the northeast. In conjunction with the rise of the automobile, the highway spurred the growth of the Delaware Beaches by greatly improving access to the coast for tourists from northern Delaware and adjacent portions of the Northeast megalopolis. Southern Delaware also developed into a major truck farming region due to having much greater access to urban markets. No longer fully reliant on the railroads to transport their goods, farmers in Sussex and Kent counties could market their fruits, vegetables, and broiler chickens directly to consumers in the north. Milner, p. 28. However, the passenger and freight traffic induced by this increased economic integration and the automobile boom of the 1920s meant that these roads in Delaware and Maryland constructed in the 1910s and 1920s, which were built with widths of , were no longer adequate for the traffic they served. Milner, p. 26. In particular, by 1929 the Selbyville–Milford portion of the DuPont Highway was the only through highway in Delaware with a width of less than . The highway's importance was further implied when the Pocomoke City to Dover highway became part of the United States Numbered Highway System. The Pocomoke City–Dover route was designated Route No. 113 in the preliminary system proposed in November 1925, and that number and course were confirmed in the system AASHO and the Bureau of Public Roads approved in November 1926. The U.S. Highway's original southern terminus was the intersection of Market Street and Sixth Street in Pocomoke City. US 113's northern terminus was the split between the two main north–south highways of southern Delaware at Coopers Corner north of Puncheon Run on the southern edge of Dover.

Interwar period widening and bypasses

In Delaware, the DuPont Highway was widened to with the addition of concrete shoulders from Selbyville to Georgetown in 1930 and from Georgetown to Milford in 1931. In 1931, the highway department identified the need to expand the highway to from Milford to Dover, and this widening was completed in 1933. In 1930, Governors Avenue was reconstructed as a concrete road and extended to become the new route of US 13 through Dover. US 113 was then extended north along State Street to a new terminus at the junction of State Street and Governors Avenue on the south side of Silver Lake.

In 1931, DSHD began construction on the first bypass of Dover. Much of the bypass would use Bay Road, the existing highway from modern DE 8 (North Little Creek Road) in Dover to Kitts Hummock on Delaware Bay. The Dover–Kitts Hummock road had been completed as a concrete road in 1926. Two sections of new highway were planned from DE 8 to State Street north of downtown Dover and from the DuPont Highway in Little Heaven north to Bay Road at what is now DE 1's interchange with DE 9 (Bayside Drive) at the southern end of Dover Air Force Base. The new highway between Little Heaven and Bay Road would cross the St. Jones River at a site called Barkers Landing.

Between December 1931 and the end of 1933, DSHD constructed a causeway across of the marsh on the east bank of the river, a process that required multiple applications of fill dirt

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