CLEVELAND — Frustrated commuters who travel on I-480 near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport will welcome the announcement from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) on Tuesday.
ODOT has begun a project to address the traffic backups at two key interchanges in Cuyahoga County:
- The I-480 westbound merge between the I-71 northbound entrance and the SR 237 southbound exit.
- The I-480 westbound merge between the I-71 southbound entrance and the Grayton Rd. exit
According to ODOT, traffic backups in the area of I-480 westbound between Tiedeman Rd. and Grayton Rd. from 4:45 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. cause the average speed through the area to dip down to 26 miles per hour.
ODOT says its engineers have designed a project to reconfigure I-480 westbound and the ramps at these interchanges to make merging easier by increasing the available merging space.
The plan calls for I-480 westbound to have three lanes under SR 237, while I-71 north to I-480 west will have a longer entrance lane, and I-71 southbound to Grayton Rd. will have a dedicated exit lane and dedicated lane to merge onto I-480 westbound.
The estimated $12 million project was awarded to Kokosing Construction Company in the fall of 2022. Work began in late February with various lane shifts and off-peak lane closures on I-480 between SR 237 and Grayton Rd.
The project is estimated to be completed by the summer of 2024.
The project came after ODOT used its "Traffic Operations Assessment System Tool" to analyze the area of I-480 westbound between the Tiedeman Rd. and Grayton Rd. exits.
After reviewing the data through the area, ODOT identified it as an "operationally sensitive corridor." Engineers then looked at ways to reduce the congestion throughout the corridor and improve the movement of vehicles in the area within the existing footprint and right-of-way.