The following is a transcript from my post to the Usenet newsgroup misc.transport.road, posted on December 10, 1998. Hopefully I will soon have enough resources to make this page a comprehensive website about the freeway, complete with pictures.
Yesterday (Dec. 8) was the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Jennings Freeway in Cleveland. I arranged to go to the opening at 11:00. In my usual fashion I arrived at the site at 11:20 and had missed the actual ribbon cutting. :( But all was not lost! Though the speaking platform was being removed when I got there, there was still a table which had free literature about the freeway, some old county planning guides, and a cake -- it was mostly gone, but I could still see that it was (of course) frosted in green with white-frosting letters and borders and was being handed out accompanied with construction-orange napkins. I talked with a man there who had been on the news due to his thorough photo documentation of the construction (see http://www.newsnet5.com/news/stories/news-981208-060232.html). Note that this was going on in the northbound lanes of the freeway (the table, for instance, was above the left yellow stripe). I took many pictures, enough for a website. I'd like to do one, but I don't have access to a color scanner!
And now the facts you've been waiting for:
From _Jennings Freeway, An Historic Route to Cleveland's Past_ by the Cuyahoga County Enginneer's Department (brochure):
"The Ohio Department of Transportation has designated the new highway as relocated State Route 176."
"More than 700 construction workers and engineers aspired to build the six-lane 2.7-mile route that includes six bridges."
From the _SR 176 Fact Sheet_ apparently by ODOT:
"The freeway connects I-480 [just west of I-77] to I-71 at the MetroGeneral Hospital Freeway interchanges now exist at Brookpark, I-480, Spring Road, Denison Ave. North of Denison the new freeway connects [via the older section] to I-71, I-90 and I-490." About the interchanges: Denison is now a full diamond (formerly the southern terminus), Spring Road's exit is a diamond actually signed as "Spring Road/Hinckley Parkway [full name: Hinckley Industrial Parkway]", and the one with I-480 is designed as a terminal interchange, except that two ramps extend through the center and snake around to end at a "T" intersection with Brookpark Rd. (OH 17) -- it's almost a four-level with access only to/from the north, but not quite.
"The most northern portion of the Jennings was constructed in part with I-71. This 1.25 mile portion opened in December 1969."
"Both projects [north section, finished last, and south section, finished first in '96] were funded 100% by the state."
"The Jennings will alleviate existing peak-hour congestion on I-77. Traffic on the Jennings is expected to reach 53,000 vehicles daily by the year 2006."
"This is a state route within a city so the maintenance responsibility is the city's, however, we are working on agreement with Cleveland to assist them (with snow plowing) the first year until they can gear up to handle the duty next year."
"The Great Lakes Construction Company has been the prime contractor on both phases."
"Right of way acquisitions for the entire project: 151 parcels, 80 structures, cost $6.5 million"
"The project includes eight new bridges." [Not sure about the discrepancy]
More stuff:
Also see the news reports at http://www.newsnet5.com/news/stories/news-981207-194548.html...and http://www.cleveland.com/news/pdnews/metro/cajennin.phtml.
As a bonus, the _Jennings Freeway_ brochure has a comprehensive list of the freeways of Cuyahoga County proposed between 1957 and 1967. The list:
More Cleveland highway history may be found here.
This page created December 10, 1998/Moved to XOOM November 2, 1999/Last revised May 2, 2000/Minor revision November 30, 2004
Return to The Ohio 176/Jennings Freeway Exit Guide