90 80 6
OHIO STATE EDITION
A Supplement to:
422
6 80 24
6
4
71
76
199 30 30 75
68
30 77
71 23 22 68
4
70 70
70
22 71
75
77
27
November 7 2015
22 74
50
50 25
Vol. XVIII • No. 23
35
52
“The Nation’s Best Read Construction Newspaper… Founded in 1957.” Your Ohio Connection: Ed Bryden, Strongsville, OH • 1-800-810-7640
$95M Project to Connect Cleveland’s West Side, Lakefront By Irwin Rapoport CEG CORRESPONDENT
The Lakefront West project in Cleveland, a $95 million Ohio Department of Transportation and city of Cleveland initiative/partnership, will be completed in the summer of 2018 by the Great Lakes Construction Co. The contractor, via individual bids, is doing all three phases of the work. Another contractor had been awarded the first of the project — the pedestrian tunnels — and began work initially in 2010, but ODOT decided to rebid the project after unanticipated soil conditions required a redesign of a retaining wall along the Lakefront. Great Lakes, the low bidder, was awarded the contract in the summer of 2012, and began work shortly afterwards (late summer/fall). The project is connecting Cleveland’s west side neighborhoods with the lakefront by creating multi-modal connections along the West Shoreway between West Boulevard and the Main Avenue Bridge. It will increase access to Lake Erie, improve green space, biking and pedestrian facilities, increase development potential and simplify connections along the now limited-access freeway, according to the Web site for the project. This two-mile freeway will be transformed into a scenic, tree-lined boulevard. The project will preserve three lanes of traffic in each direction — the same number motorists see today. Reduction of the speed limit from 50 mph to 35 mph is expected to add just over a minute of total travel time along the boulevard. In 2008 ODOT and the city of Cleveland eliminated
The Lakefront West project in Cleveland, a $95 million Ohio Department of Transportation and city of Cleveland initiative/partnership, will be completed in the summer of 2018 by the Great Lakes Construction Co. The contractor, via individual bids, is doing all three phases of the work.
proposed plans to include signalized intersections along the corridor, further reducing travel times yet maintaining a scenic, boulevard feel. The project includes improvements for a variety of transportation choices, including public transportation, cyclists, runners and pedestrians. The West 73rd Street Extension creates a new link from the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood directly
to Edgewater Park, according to the Web page. The new piece of roadway will dip beneath the railroad tracks and connect to the existing entrance to Edgewater Park. As part of the West Shoreway reconstruction, crews also will construct a new off road multipurpose trail along the Shoreway from West Boulevard to West 28th Street. The landscaped and lighted path will be about 10 ft. (3 m) wide and will accommodate cyclists of
all levels as well as pedestrians. Amanda McFarland, ODOT’s public information officer of District 12 (Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga Counties), points out that a key reason for the project is that in 2002, the city of Cleveland initiated a comprehensive update of the city’s Master Plan to create a more accessible lakefront. “The study identified the West Shoreway, renamed to Lakefront West, as the first transportation
project to be tackled,” she said. “Furthermore, the Governing Board of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) approved the Lakefront West Project for placement on Tier 1 of the Regional Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) and the state of Ohio’s Transportation Review Advisory Council (TRAC) also weighed in and approved funding for the project.” see PROJECT page 2