Situated in the northeastern part of Delaware, Camden is located a few miles south of the state capital, Dover. Two major routes cross each other in the small town, which has a population of just over 4,000. The routes are:
- State Route 10 (known locally as Lebanon Road), which runs from the Maryland border to southeastern Dover
- U.S. 13, which runs from north of Fayetteville, North Carolina, to the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) and general contractor Allan Myers are constructing a new road to enable drivers to bypass the congested downtown Camden area and offer a new connection between U.S. 13 and SR 10. The project/bypass is called East Camden Bypass.
DelDOT is also constructing the West Camden Bypass. While a separate project, the two are connected.
The idea of a bypass road around Camden has been in the works for years, and the town adopted it in 2008. The next step was to develop multiple alternatives. DelDOT presented the options to the public, and the selected alignment is now under construction.
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The town's 2019 Comprehensive Plan discusses various benefits of the Camden Bypass project. According to the plan, the “overall intent would be to better connect the town's historic downtown to the newly developed areas along the bypass as well as the U.S. Route 13 corridor." It adds that the new bypass would promote community connectivity and prioritize bicycle and pedestrian connectivity.
"The purpose of the project is to increase safety and reduce traffic congestion along SR 10 through the town of Camden and improve traffic operations at the U.S. 13/SR 10 and U.S. 13/Old North Road intersections," DelDOT's Design Project Manager John Gaines said.
"The roadway and intersections currently have a failing level of service due to extensive congestion and long wait times traveling the roadways," Gaines added. “Locals use these intersections to access schools located on Old North Road. This additional congestion adds to the capacity issues and the higher-than-average crash rate on this section of U.S. 13."
The average daily traffic on this section of U.S. 13 was 48,001 in 2015 and is projected to be 71,057 in the design year of 2045. Heavy trucks make up 6.26 percent of traffic.
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Another impetus for the project is to decrease traffic in the downtown area. Currently, the area sees a significant number of heavy vehicles going through the town. The bypass will provide direct east-west connections for the heavily traveled SR 10 corridor.
The new roadway primarily traverses previously open fields with tie-ins provided to local roads in the area. With the new bypass, traffic will avoid nearby schools and Camden's historic district. The historic district features homes built in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
In addition to the new bypass road (approximately 0.7 miles), which will have two travel lanes with shoulders and a multi-use path, the project also adds two signalized intersections for east-west traffic to reduce north-south traffic on U.S. 13 in the Camden area. They will enable drivers to access SR 10.
Another element of the project is a five-leg roundabout.
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"The addition of a five-leg roundabout at the new intersection with Rising Sun Road will also replace a very dangerous, heavily traveled intersection with very poor geometrical layout," Gaines said. “Rising Sun Road intersects SR 10 at a very skewed angle, in a super-elevated curve with four lanes of traffic and no stop controls for SR 10.”
The team is also installing drainage and a water main, relocating utilities, and installing roadway lighting. According to DelDOT’s project website, the East Camden Bypass project “utilizes both open and closed drainage systems that will tie into two stormwater management ponds located at the intersection of U.S. 13 and SR 10."
The multimodal project is geared toward travelers of all types, not just drivers. A 10-foot-wide shared-use path will be built throughout the project area, with crosswalks added to all intersections and pedestrian signals added to the crossings at U.S. 13. Additionally, a 5-foot-wide sidewalk will be constructed on the west side of Rising Sun Road. These pedestrian and bicycle facilities will connect to the recently completed Capital City Trail, which extends east along the south side of SR 10/East Lebanon Road.
Public transportation is also on the agenda. The project will add two DART bus stops along the northbound side of U.S. 13.
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Often resulting in delays and additional costs, construction change orders can be stressful for project teams. On the East Camden Bypass project, a change has been the team's biggest challenge so far. This is according to Jay Evans, an Area Engineer for DelDOT who is serving as the Project Manager.
"The biggest challenge for this project was due to the additional sewer line that was added to the project after the project was awarded," Evans said.
Change orders are common in construction projects, but this one came with an additional obstacle.
"Because the work was not included in the original design, there was not much exploratory preparation done in this area to install the new line," Evans said. "Several underground obstacles were encountered along the way that involved the project's designer [Century Engineering] and Kent County Public Works to bypass these obstacles."
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The decision was made to add the sewer line to the project, since it is within the project area.
In addition to the sewer line, Kent County asked for the project to include a failing portion of sewer main.
General contractor Allan Myers' headquarters is in Worcester, Pennsylvania, about two hours north of Camden. The family-owned company has been around since 1939.
As the largest heavy civil construction company and materials provider in the Mid-Atlantic, the company has over 2,200 employees, 21 asphalt and aggregate plants (one is in Dover), and eight regional offices.
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Allan Myers partners with DelDOT regularly. The contractor won the project with a bid just south of $22.3 million. Currently, the project is on budget.
The additional sewer work, which costs approximately $1.1 million, was paid for by Kent County. The federal government is funding the rest of the project.
The project began in summer 2024, and the team anticipates completing it on schedule in summer 2026.
"The keys to keeping the project on schedule have been the weekly coordination meetings," Evans said.
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The meetings began in June 2025, when the detour portion of the project started in Phase Two.
"The detour closed Rising Sun Road down from SR 10 to Royal Grant to allow for the construction of the tie-in at Willow Grove Road to Rising Sun Road and the sewer line extension," Evans said. “The meetings were held to keep [the] project team abreast on potential issues and ways that we could keep the project on schedule.”
The Camden Bypass project will improve traffic conditions in the area, among other benefits.
"The public will have access to a much safer roadway network with several new access points to traverse a very busy highway corridor," Gaines said. "The proposed roadways will provide a much more efficient flow of traffic to all design vehicles, multimodal facilities, reduce delays, and increase the safety of the network for the roadway users."
