The Indian River Inlet Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge located in Sussex County, Delaware in the United States. It carries four lanes of Delaware Route 1 over the Indian River Inlet between the Indian River Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. The bridge is within Delaware Seashore State Park between Dewey Beach and Bethany Beach. The Indian River Inlet Bridge is maintained by the Delaware Department of Transportation . The bridge is 2600ft long and 107.66ft wide, with a span of 950ft and overhead clearance of 45ft.Prior to the current bridge, four other bridges have spanned the Indian River Inlet, opened in 1934, 1940, 1952, and 1965, the latter widened by an additional span added in 1976. All were known informally as the Indian River Inlet Bridge, and all but the first officially were named the Charles W. Cullen Bridge. The 1965 bridge, a steel girder bridge, was subject to scouring from the inlet, leading to the need to replace it. Initial plans for a tied-arch bridge over the inlet in 2004 were over budget, and 2006 plans for a 1,400-foot cable-stayed bridge were cancelled because of early construction and legal problems. Construction of the current, 2,600-foot bridge began in 2008 as part of a design-build project, with Skanska awarded the contract to build the bridge. The current Indian River Inlet Bridge opened partially in January 2012 and completely in May 2012 at a cost of $150 million.
