Interstate 90 in Ohio

According to ablogtophone, Interstate 90 or I -90 is an Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Ohio. Part of the route intersects with Interstate 80, which is the Ohio Turnpike, a toll road between the Indiana and Elyria border, just west of Cleveland. Toledo is the first major city on the route, and Cleveland the second, with I-90 running right through it. The highway runs east of Toledo parallel to Lake Erie. The route in Ohio is 393 kilometers long.

Travel directions

I-80/90 near Sandusky.

The Ohio Turnpike & I-80/90.

The George V. Voinovich Bridges in Cleveland.

A sharp turn on I-90 in Cleveland, one of the most infamous turns of all Interstate Highways.

According to beautyphoon, Interstate 90 in Indiana turns into Ohio, where the toll plaza immediately follows the border. The highway runs through the vast agricultural areas of the Midwest. The landscape is quite flat. Ohio is generally considered the easternmost state of the Midwest. As is often seen on toll roads, the exits are quite far apart, especially for Interstate standards, where normally almost all intersecting roads have a connection. After 100 kilometers you reach the city of Toledo. Toledo runs to the border with Michigan, and has a population of 314,000. The highway intersects with I-475, but there are no exchange possibilities. The highway runs through the southern suburbs of the city, but has only one direct exit in the urban area. The road crosses the Maumee River, a relatively small river that is quite wide at 350 meters. At the suburb of Perrysburg, I-80/I-90 intersects Interstate 75, which runs to Detroit to the north, and Dayton and Cincinnati to the south. Not much further on, I-280 ends on the highway, this is Toledo’s eastern bypass.

After this the highway comes along the coast of the immense Lake Erie, although the highway remains 15 – 20 kilometers inland. The endless agricultural landscape still persists. At Amherst you pass the first suburbs of Cleveland, which itself is about 55 kilometers away. At Elyria the double numbering ends with Interstate 80. I=80 passes south of the metropolitan area, where Interstate 90 cuts through Cleveland. It passes through several forested suburbs and I-90 known as the Northwest Freewayruns pretty close to Lake Erie. Here you reach the city of Cleveland itself, which has a population of 478,000, with 2.2 million in the metropolitan area. South of downtown you come to a 4-level stack interchange, where I-90 turns north, straight ahead is Interstate 490, and southbound Interstate 71 goes to Columbus and Cincinnati. From I-90 you have a good view of the city skyline.

One crosses the Cuyahoga River, which flows right through Cleveland. Interstate 77 ends downtown, which runs to the larger cities of Akron and Canton, and on to Charleston in West Virginia. The highway runs a little to the north, and near the Cleveland airport, the highway runs directly along Lake Erie. There is a very sharp bend in the highway here. After Cleveland itself, one enters the vast sea of ​​suburbs, including East Cleveland, Cleveland Heights, Euclid and Mentor. Interstate 271 terminates at Wickcliffe, forming Cleveland ‘s eastern bypass. The highway narrows here to 2×2 lanes. After Painesville, after 110 kilometers you leave the conurbation of Cleveland.

The eastern part of Ohio consists of an alternation of forests and meadows, and is somewhat less monotonous than the endless meadows in the west of the state. You pass several small towns and villages. At Ashtabula one crosses State Route 11, a highway between Youngstown and the coast of Lake Erie at Ashtabula. The forests are increasingly predominant in this area. At Conneaut, Interstate 90 in Pennsylvania continues northeast.

History

Ohio Turnpike

The western portion of I-90 coincides with the Ohio Turnpike. The section from the Indiana border to the Elyria fork on the west side of Cleveland was opened to traffic on October 1, 1955. This part was 228 kilometers long. Traffic from the Cleveland area thus had a highway connection to Chicago.

Cleveland

The Innerbelt Bridge in Cleveland was opened on August 15, 1959. The area around downtown Cleveland was also opened to traffic in 1959. A short stretch east of downtown called the Memorial Shoreway is older, opening to traffic about 1935. In 1941 this section was extended east to Bratenahl in eastern Cleveland along Lake Erie. In 1963 this was extended eastwards to the junction with State Route 2 at Euclid.

The section from the Ohio Turnpike to the Innerbelt Bridge through western Cleveland was missing for a long time. In 1965, downtown Cleveland could only be reached from the northeast by freeway. The western part started out as the Lorain bypass, the first part of which was opened around 1968. This was actually mainly part of State Highway 2 that would run parallel to the Ohio Turnpike from Sandusky to the western suburbs of Cleveland. Opened in about 1968, the section ran to Colorado Avenue in Avon, a 7-mile stretch. At the time, however, there was no direct connection to the Ohio Turnpike, traffic between the Ohio Turnpike and the Lorain bypass had to pass through Elyria via OH-57 or through Amherst via OH-58.

In 1970 or 1971, a short extension opened in Avon from Colorado Avenue to OH-83 of 2 kilometers in length. Circa 1973, a four-mile extension eastwards to Crocker Road opened. In 1975 the Ohio Turnpike Connector opened, making the still partially under construction freeway a more logical part of Interstate 90. In 1977, a further seven-mile extension opened to Riverside Drive in Rocky River, on the edge of Lakewood. In 1978 or 1979, the missing link to I-71, which completed I-90 through Cleveland, opened 20 years after the Innerbelt Bridge opened. Between 2011 and 2016, the Innerbelt Bridge was replaced by the George V. Voinovich Bridges.

Northeast Ohio

The section in northeastern Ohio was constructed in a short period of time, between approximately 1959 and 1962. Presumably in 1960 or 1961, a long 69-kilometer section opened between Painesville and the Pennsylvania border at Conneaut. The following year, the final 18-kilometer stretch between Wickliffe and Painesville opened to traffic. However, there was no direct connection to the route from Cleveland or Interstate 271. Both connections opened to traffic about 1963. This completed I-90 from downtown Cleveland to the Pennsylvania border.

Widenings

In 1996, a project began to fully widen the Ohio Turnpike from Toledo to Youngstown to 2×3 lanes. I-90 makes up much of that west of Elyria. For I-90, the widening was completed in 2004, except for a section between Maumee and Perrysburg near Toledo, which was completed in 2014. On November 17, 2014, 2×3 lanes opened here.

Opening history

Lane Configuration