Are through trucks allowed on DE 299? If so, that and US 13 would be the alternate.
Since this question never really got answered earlier, the answer is no. And that restriction has been in place at a minimum for the better part of 2 decades (I recall it existing in the early 2000s when I first traveled through the area).
That restriction has actually been there a lot longer, at least between Middletown and Odessa. I remember noticing it in the mid-1980s when I first moved to the MD Eastern Shore from Delco, PA. And that was quite a few years before that corridor got built up.
That long-term thru-truck restriction, until very recently, wasn't
forcing thru-truck-traffic onto a tolled facility. Since the southern leg of the new US 301 tollway
replaces (rather than compliments) the old US 301 (Middletown Warwick Rd.) roadway; the change/upgrade now creates
no free alternate route for trucks, thru-traffic or otherwise. I don't know about anyone else here; but such reeks of
extortion.
In addition to truckers complaining, I wouldn't be surprised that residents of neighboring Warwick, MD start complaining of increased thru-car-traffic along Sassafrass Ave. While Google Maps show the stretch between US 301 & MD 282 as MD 299; based on current (though 2008 vintage) GSVs, there are no signs along that stretch indicating such. One has to wonder how much Warwick, MD was involved/consulted in the planning & design input for that southernmost leg of US 301.
If I were living near there and saw the plans & the toll gantry locations; the very first question I would've asked would have been,
"Why are you eliminating the only toll-free corridor that's open to all traffic?" Every other tollway in Delaware (I-95/Delaware Turnpike & DE 1) was built
in addition to the main arterial corridors not
instead of.
For those suggesting placing
LAST EXIT BEFORE TOLL signage; while such works for southbound traffic approaching Exit 2, it doesn't really help northbound traffic too much because the last turn-off before the AET gantry is indeed at the fore-mentioned Sassafrass Rd. (which isn't truck-traffic friendly) or the MD 290 interchange further south (I'm assuming that trucks can use that road).