Stalemate Over Inner Belt

Aired January 11, 2007

Several Cleveland City Council Members yesterday went on record with their concerns over the Ohio Department of Transportation's plans to revamp the I-90 inner belt, from Metro Health Hospital to Dead Man's Curve. ideastream's Lisa Ann Pinkerton reports.

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See Also: Inner Belt Rehab

ODOT says the only way to reduce an average two accidents a day on the stretch of I-90 that passes through downtown is to cut off access at Lakeside, St. Clair, Prospect and Carnegie. But some worry that businesses will suffer gravely without the access to the highway they currently enjoy. Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman calls the inner belt an aorta feeding the life blood of a city.

Joe Cimperman: And what I continue to not be able to understand is why it makes sense to increase entrances and exits in cities like Avon, Beachwood and Westlake, and yet why reducing exits makes sense in the city of (Cleveland).

Cimperman, working with the community development corporation Midtown Cleveland, hired an independent consultant to study traffic models of ODOT's current plan. The study predicts a number of intersections leading to and from the highway have the potential to become extremely congested during rush hours. In the meeting, Cimperman asked ODOT Project Manager Craig Hebebrand if it gave him pause to know less access to the highway might over burden surface streets.

Craig Hebebrand: No, it doesn't give me pause. We look very carefully at the traffic analysis - we think the problem is of such a minor nature that additional impacts are not warranted.

All 12 of ODOT's district directors under Former Governor Bob Taft have stepped down. Governor Ted Strickland will appoint their replacements as well as a new Director of ODOT. Councilman Cimperman hopes new ODOT leadership for Northeast Ohio will break the stalemate he sees over the inner belt project. ODOT will meet again with the Cleveland Planning Commission next week and hold a public meeting in Tremont the first of February. Lisa Ann Pinkerton, 90.3.