(a) As long as any bonds issued prior to July 27, 1955, under 45 Del. Laws, c. 275, as amended, shall remain outstanding and unpaid or until provision shall have been made for the payment thereof as provided in the indentures securing such bonds, no bridge or tunnel over or under the Delaware River for the use of the traveling public or for the transportation of goods or other property, having a terminus in this State within the distance of 10 miles north along the shore of the Delaware River and 20 miles south along such shore of the Delaware terminus of the Delaware Memorial Bridge shall, after July 27, 1955, be constructed and operated by the State, by the Department or other agency of the State or by any county, municipal corporation or political subdivision of the State or by any agency or instrumentality thereof or by any public body or authority not created by an act of Congress of the United States or by any person, copartnership, association or corporation not created by or acting under authority of an act of Congress of the United States.
(b) The State covenants that if the Department shall issue bonds under this chapter, no crossing of the Delaware River shall thereafter be constructed and operated by the State, by the Department or by any other agency of the State or by any county, municipal corporation or political subdivision of the State or by any agency or instrumentality thereof or by any public body or authority not created by an act of Congress of the United States or by any person, copartnership, association or corporation not created by or acting under authority of an act of Congress of the United States, which shall compete with the Delaware Memorial Bridge or with any toll crossing over or under the Delaware River to be constructed in whole or in part out of the proceeds of such bonds, and the Department may agree with the holders of its bonds as to the character and location of any crossing which shall be deemed to be a competitive crossing within the meaning of this section, and such determination shall be binding upon the State and the Department, so long as any of such bonds remain outstanding and unpaid or until provision for their payment shall have been made in the manner provided in the resolution or indenture pursuant to which such bonds shall have been issued.