page_title: Delaware Route 141
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Delaware Route 141 / History
caption_attribution_description: Southbound Delaware Route 141 (Centre Road) between Delaware Route 34 (Faulkland Road) and Delaware Route 2 (Kirkwood Highway) near Prices Corner, Delaware.
context_page_description: Delaware Route 141 is a state highway that serves as a western bypass of Wilmington, Delaware. Its southern terminus is at DE 9 and DE 273 in New Castle and its northern terminus is an interchange with U.S. Route 202 and DE 261 in Fairfax. The route heads north from DE 9/DE 273 on four-lane divided Basin Road, becoming concurrent with US 202 at an interchange with US 13/US 40 and passes to the east of Wilmington Airport. The highway becomes a freeway and reaches an interchange with Interstate 95 and I-295, at which point US 202 splits from DE 141. The DE 141 freeway continues north through Newport to Prices Corner. Here, the freeway segment ends and DE 141 continues northeast as a surface road, with another brief freeway segment in Greenville. The route heads east across the Brandywine Creek on the Tyler McConnell Bridge and continues to US 202/DE 261.
  What is now DE 141 between New Castle and Newport was originally designated as part of DE 41 in the 1930s. DE 141 was designated as a surface bypass of Wilmington between New Castle and US 202 north of Wilmington in the 1950s, running concurrent with DE 41 south of Newport. DE 41 was removed from DE 141 by 1971.
context_section_description: By 1920, what would become DE 141 existed as an unimproved county road. The road between Prices Corner and Greenville was paved by 1924. A year later, the road between New Castle and Newport was upgraded to a state highway. Plans were underway in 1927 to replace the outdated swing bridge over the Christina River in Newport. Contracts for this project were awarded the following year. The replacement bridge over the Christina River, a bascule bridge, opened on December 1, 1929. In 1927, plans were made to replace the grade crossing at the Pennsylvania Railroad line (now Amtrak's Northeast Corridor) in Newport with an underpass under the tracks. Work on this underpass began in 1929. The crossing under the Pennsylvania Railroad was finished and opened to traffic in June 1930. What is now DE 141 between New Castle and Newport was designated as part of DE 41 by 1936, which continued northwest from Newport toward Hockessin and the Pennsylvania border. Also by this time, Powder Mill Road was paved.
  DE 141 was designated to run from DE 273 in New Castle to US 202 north of Wilmington by 1952, following DE 41 on Basin Road and James Street between New Castle and Newport, Centerville Road between Newport and Prices Corner, and Centre Road, Barley Mill Road, and Powder Mill Road between Prices Corner and US 202. In 1954, plans were made to replace the intersection with US 13/US 40/US 202 in Basin Corner with a modified cloverleaf interchange in an effort to reduce traffic congestion. Construction on the interchange began in September of that year. The interchange between US 13/US 40/US 202 and DE 41/DE 141 was completed in 1956. Work was underway in 1954 to widen DE 141 to four lanes along Centerville and Centre roads from Boxwood Road near Prices Corner north to DE 48; this project was completed in 1955. The new northbound lanes of DE 41/DE 141 through the I-95 interchange opened in November 1962, at which point construction on the southbound lanes began. The southbound lanes of DE 41/DE 141 opened in June 1964, enabling directional flow of DE 41/DE 141 through the interchange. DE 41 was removed from its concurrency with DE 141 by 1971.
  In 1965, a $20 million ($150 million today) freeway was proposed along the DE 141 corridor between Newport and US 202 north of Wilmington, providing a bypass to the west of Wilmington. By 1971, the DE 141 freeway from Newport to Prices Corner was under design and the reconstruction of the route north of DE 48 began. The same year, a contract was awarded for construction of a grade separation of the Reading Railroad (now the East Penn Railroad) in Greenville. In 1973, work started to upgrade DE 141 between the Christina River in Newport and the Brandywine Creek near Greenville. A contract was awarded to construct the DE 141 freeway through Newport in 1974. The construction of interchanges in Prices Corner and at DE 52 were included in the Bond Bill in 1976. The DE 141 freeway from Newport to Prices Corner and in Greenville was completed by 1981. In 1984, US 202 was rerouted to follow DE 141 between US 13/US 40 and I-95. DE 100 was rerouted to follow DE 141 between DE 48 and Montchanin Road by 1990.
  In 1992, an environmental assessment was approved for improving DE 141 between DE 2 and US 202. Among the improvements called for were a six-lane bridge over the Brandywine Creek replacing the existing two-lane bridge, a new bridge over Rockland Road, and a new interchange with US 202 and DE 261. Later in the year, the proposed bridge over the Brandywine Creek was scaled back to four lanes. In 1994, plans for the bridge over the Brandywine Creek and the US 202 interchange were placed on hold. Meanwhile, the bridge over Rockland Road was completed in 1997, with DE 141 being realigned between Rockland Road and US 202 and the intersection with Children's Drive improved. In the 2000s, the Blue Ball Construction Project relocated the northern terminus of DE 141 to an interchange with US 202 and DE 261 a short distance to the south of where Powder Mill Road intersects US 202. The project took place between 2002 a
caption: DE 141 being rebuilt into a divided highway between DE 34 and DE 2 in 2008
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