The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) will be re-configuring lanes at the mainline toll plazas on SR 1 located at Biddle’s Corner to allow for a more streamlined flow through the E-ZPass express lane system.
Due to the increased usage of the high speed E-ZPass facilities over the years resulting in approximately 67% of vehicles utilizing the technology at each of Delaware’s three mainline toll plazas (Newark, Dover, and Biddle’s Corner), DelDOT will be undertaking a project to permit two continuous highway-speed through lanes both approaching and exiting the toll plaza in an effort to better accommodate the predominant traffic movement and relieve congestion during peak times due to merging vehicles.
Currently, northbound motorists approaching the toll plaza and destined for the E-ZPass express lanes must merge into the leftmost lane of SR 1, which then splits into two lanes nearing the toll plaza. The US 301 project has removed the merge condition and now allows both E-ZPass lanes to continue northward. For southbound motorists exiting the plaza, the leftmost E-ZPass express lane ends, and motorists must then merge back to the right to continue south on SR 1.
The new lane configuration will allow both SR 1 through lanes to access the E-ZPass express lanes, eliminating those merges both approaching and exiting the toll plazas in both directions. Cash customers will now be required to use only the right lane approaching the plaza and then keep right as the lane splits in order to enter the toll area. Upon exiting, cash customers will then be required to merge left back onto mainline SR 1. See attached graphic for more details.
The project involves signing and striping changes only; no pavement modifications are needed. Overhead guide signs approaching the toll plaza will be replaced to reflect the changes in lane assignments, and portable changeable message signs will be stationed at the approaches of the plaza to alert and remind motorists of the change in traffic pattern.
The work will be taking place at the Biddle’s Corner toll plaza on or about Monday, October 14, 2019, (weather permitting) and will occur during night time off-peak hours to minimize disruptions to the traveling public. Motorists can expect lane closures between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., as well as the periodic closure of the E-ZPass express lanes. The work is expected to last 3 to 4 nights. This traffic pattern was also implemented at the SR 1 Dover Toll Plaza in fall 2018.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has also announced that they will be working on the Roth Bridge (Route 1) during some of the same dates next week.