Expansion of US 113 to a divided highway slowed in the 1970s. As with most major highway projects, the divided highway expansion projects received partial federal funding, and starting in 1970, those federally aided projects required environmental impact assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act. This new barrier slowed the completion of the divided highway between Milford to Dover. Maryland was subject to the same environmental assessment, but it was local activism that overcame state inaction in continuing divided highway construction along US 113 in that state.