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[thenetwork]

One of the more mysterious freeway "gaps" in Ohio has to be stretch of I-90/OH-2 in Lorain County (between OH-611 and OH-57) that has been 4 lanes for nearly 50 years.

Widening of the freeway west of the Cleveland (Westlake) area to OH-611 has been completed for nearly 20 of those years.  The mainline bridges have been widened for years as well, yet the "gap" still remains through parts of Elyria, Avon and Sheffield.

There is finally talk about rebuilding the pavement in that stretch with "possibly" adding the third lanes in an upcoming project, making I-90 a minimum of 3 lane in each direction from the Ohio Turnpike all the way to I-490.

https://chroniclet.com/news/286671/local-officials-odots-proposed-i-90-pavement-replacement-project-could-include-widening/

My question is: Why is ODOT still being hesitant on widening the final 5-7 miles of 4-lane interstate when they have widened the bridges years ago? 

If they are going to rebuild that stretch, and the infrastructure bill has added funding to projects, this should be a slam dunk logical completion, yet they still make it sound like it will take a miracle alignment of moons and stars to rebuild and widen at the same time.

About as dumb as leaving that I-71 4-lane gap for so long in Delaware and Morrow Counties that was finally completed 5 years ago.

[zzcarp]

It sure would be nice to see that done. 20 years ago it wasn't that necessary. I attended night classes for a while at LCCC in the early oughts, and while traffic on OH 2 and I-90 was heavy at rush hour, it was nearly always passable at or near the speed limit.

My recollection of these highway projects was that the northeast Ohio MPO has been anti-highway expansion. Their concern historically is that reducing congestion will increase sprawl and thus the further migration of people and businesses from Cleveland proper and higher tax Cuyahoga County to the lower tax, somewhat-lower corruption hinterlands. I know that's why I-71's widening was done on sporadic sections instead of consecutive ones. I suspect that hurdle is why the widening hasn't been a higher priority.

[thenetwork]

Well the original excuse for not widening that stretch was the bridges over the Black River needed to be done first...We'll thats been done for a while, so there is no excuse not to finish it now.

[Great Lakes Roads]

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4533224,-82.0671934,3a,75y,349.77h,87.17t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sbeuEYK7CzQxZFWyNU87lrg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Also, I should point out that the last remaining bridge that hasn't been widened yet is currently being replaced with an easy expansion to three lanes in each direction if they decide to do it.

(It's the bridge that goes over the railroad tracks in Avon.)

[CoolAngrybirdsrio4]

Looks like there are extra wide left shoulders from bridge over Ford Road to the bridge of the Black River. This is probably due to future widening up to the I-90/OH 2 split.

Some instances of this:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4136734,-82.0971359,51m/data=!3m1!1e3
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4047371,-82.1177271,3a,60y,111.35h,82.65t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1slCN8RgT4PAYnj5pwt2E6bg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4039005,-82.1318214,3a,75y,98.17h,88.87t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1svUBWZkeeYkQYSdOODF1OCw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DvUBWZkeeYkQYSdOODF1OCw%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D243.37874%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

[Buck87]

Well the original excuse for not widening that stretch was the bridges over the Black River needed to be done first...We'll thats been done for a while, so there is no excuse not to finish it now.

There were 7 pairs of bridges that needed done, and the Black River and Ford Rd pairs were the first ones to get done. After that came the OH 57 and W River Rd pairs. Then came the Lake Ave and RR track pairs (between 57 and the 2/90 split). And now the final pair is currently underway, as pointed out by Great Lakes Roads.

[dvferyance]

Yep going to need a wider interstate to accommodate all the traffic going to the Duck Tape Festival every June.

[Buck87]

Not sure how reliable this is, but I heard from someone who knows someone working on that final pair of bridges over a railroad track near OH 611 that the project is currently being held up due to Norfolk Southern being non compliant on granting whatever right of way access or some such that is required to complete it.