Massive Reconstruction: The Inner belt

Every day over 120,000 vehicles travel the stretch of highway in downtown Cleveland known as the Inner belt. The span of highway that stretches from Metro Hospital to Burke Lakefront Airport is the primary artery for motorists traveling into the city, and serves as a connecting piece for Interstates 71, 77 and 90, right at the doorstep of downtown. According to statistics from the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) the Inner belt is the single-most dangerous stretch of highway in the entire state of Ohio. As a result, its reconstruction is high on the list of priorities for both ODOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). However, both ODOT and the FHWA have learned in the last three years that such an integral yet flawed piece of the city's transportation infrastructure cannot be reconstructed without a great deal of controversy. On Thursday Nov. 17, ODOT conducted their most recent in a series of public meetings on the Inner belt Project at the Wolstein Center on the campus of Cleveland State. During this meeting, ODOT's district 12 office made a presentation of their findings from a three-year study of thinner belt and its traffic patterns. After relaying their findings, ODOT then presented their recommended preferred alternative, a detailed plan for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Inner belt that could dramatically affect the city of Cleveland both economically and aesthetically for years to come. The current proposed plan for the inner belt is incredibly detailed and complex. ODOT's recommendation includes the building of a brand new inner belt bridge to the northeast of the current bridge. This new five-lane bridge will carry westbound traffic over the Cuyahoga River valley from Jacobs Field to the Tremont neighborhood. The current bridge will continue to be utilized, as it will be reduced in size from a two-way eight-lane bridge to a one-way five-lane bridge that will carry eastbound traffic from Tremont to the area south of Jacobs Field where the two bridges will converge. The second phase of the inner belt project is the reconstruction of the Inner belt trench, the stretch of highway below the city's surface between East 22nd street and dead-man's curve. The plan being proposed by ODOT will not only widen this stretch of highway, but also eliminate a series of exits and entrances from the highway in an effort to make the conflicted highway section safer for motorists. The third and final phase of the inner belt project is the reconstruction of dead-man's curve, the 90-degree turn on Interstate 90 north of Lakeside Avenue and south of Burke Lakefront Airport. ODOT's recommended plan will widen to provide a safer turning radius. In addition, the current ramp from Route 2 east to Interstate 90 west will be eliminated while a new entrance ramp will be constructed to loop over Interstate 90 and into the eastbound traffic on Interstate 90 before dead-man's curve. The reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Inner belt is a 15-year construction project that will cost almost $1 billion. As currently planned, the inner belt project should improve traffic flow and safety for motorists. However, the project will also have severe economic and aesthetic effects on the city of Cleveland for years to come. Following is a more detailed explanation of the plan and the effects it will have on Cleveland, as well as some potential alternatives to ODOT's recommendation. THE BRIDGE The current inner belt bridge, also known as the Central Viaduct, carries eight lanes of I-90 traffic between Jacobs Field and Tremont. When ODOT began evaluating the current bridge as a part of their inner belt study, the plan was to rehabilitate rather than rebuild. However, after realizing that the current structure was inadequate and would need to be rebuilt within the next 30 to 50 years, ODOT began examining plans to build a new bridge all together. ODOT's current plan will build a new bridge for westbound traffic just to the northeast of the current bridge and just south of the Lorain-Carnegie (Hope Memorial) Bridge. This new bridge will be shielded from the Cleveland skyline by the two bridges surrounding it and will also add structural congestion to the industrial area of the flats that it will be built on, as well as the area south of Jacobs Field. While ODOT's primary concern is to improve safety and traffic flow, there are other factors involved in a project of this magnitude. Factors such as structural congestion, the aesthetics of a new bridge and the its effects on the Gateway district are the seed from which a vastly different bridge plan has grown. Paul Alsenas is the director of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission. Since ODOT began the inner belt study, Alsenas and the planning commission have lobbied for a bridge plan that is drastically different from the one proposed by ODOT. Taking into consideration the traffic concerns around Jacobs Field, as well as potential aesthetic improvements to the city's skyline, Alsenas and the county have proposed the building of a new 10-lane 2-way inner belt bridge to the south of the current structure. This alternative would re-route traffic farther to the south of Jacobs Field, close to the campus of Cuyahoga Community College and the United States Post Office on Orange Avenue. By building a new bridge to the south of the current structure, land would be opened up for development to the south of Jacobs Field where the inner belt is currently constructed. In addition, the land in the industrial flats on which the current structure is built would be opened up for potential riverfront development. Finally, by moving the bridge and the inner belt farther south, the highway could be brought to a lower elevation than the surface of the city. By lowering the elevation of the highway, exits from the highway onto Ontario, East 9th Street and East 22nd Street would incorporate ramps that move upward from the inner belt onto the city streets. At the same time, corresponding entrances from the city streets onto the highway would move downward. The current inner belt stretch west of Carnegie is the complete opposite, with highway traffic traveling down into the city and city traffic moving up onto the highway. While the alternative concept proposed by Alsenas and the planning commission may initially sound better than ODOT's current proposal, there are definite flaws. When questioned about the alternative plan, ODOT insists that the southern bridge concept is not feasible due to two major issues. First, ODOT claims that building a bridge to the south of the current structure would require taking a portion of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in the Tremont neighborhood. In addition, ODOT contends that building a new bridge to the south would cause severe traffic disruption when connected to Interstate 90 in Tremont. Whereas the ODOT plan would maintain the current bridge and the current flow of traffic through the completion of the project, the southern bridge concept would require the closing of the highway for an indefinite period of time. When completing the final stages of construction landing the bridge onto Interstate 90, I-90 itself would need to be closed so that the new bridge and current highway could be linked together. This temporary disruption in traffic flow, a disruption that would effect all 120,000 motorists that travel the inner belt each day, is a large enough flaw that ODOT dismissed the southern bridge concept in June. Alsenas and the county planners disagree with ODOT on both fronts, claiming that their proposal could be implemented without touching the church. They also believe that traffic could be adequately re-routed during the final stages of construction onto West 25th Street and Interstate 490. While ODOT has yet to fully examine the bridge concept proposed by Alsenas and the County Planning Commission, increased pressure from Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones and area citizens may prompt ODOT to take another look at the southern bridge concept before moving forward with the current plan.