In 1971, US 301 was shifted to follow what had been US 301S between Middletown and Summit Bridge, with US 301S remaining along DE 71 between Summit Bridge and Tybouts Corner. By 1984, DE 896 was rerouted to run from Mount Pleasant to Boyds Corner, with the route being removed from DE 71 from Mt. Pleasant to Middletown and the segment from Middletown to south of Townsend, which was the original routing of DE 71, becoming unnumbered. A year later, US 301 was rerouted onto the newly aligned DE 896 and US 13 between Mount Pleasant and Tybouts Corner and removed from DE 71/DE 896 from Summit Bridge to Mount Pleasant. The south end of DE 71 was truncated to DE 896 in Summit Bridge by 1987. By 1990, DE 71 was extended back south along its original alignment to again end at US 13 south of Townsend. US 301 was realigned to follow the route between Mt. Pleasant and Summit Bridge in 1992. The concurrency with US 301 between Middletown and Summit Bridge was removed when the US 301 toll road opened on January 10, 2019.