Nighttime lane closings will start today for barrier-wall placement, shoulder paving, and other set-up work related to the I-75 reconstruction and widening projects between I-475 and I-280, state officials said Monday during their rollout of the 2015 construction program for the entire Toledo area.

The night work follows the Ohio Department of Transportation’s closings of six ramps at the Jeep and Willys parkways interchange for the I-75 reconstruction.

One of the ramps was used Monday for staging a brief news conference, where speakers focused on the business and development benefits from highway improvements.

While having a quality work force and suitable real estate is vital to development, “infrastructure is the key that brings everything together,” said Matt Sapara, Toledo’s director of economic development.

The I-75 reconstruction, Mr. Sapara cited as an example is considered vital to the redevelopment of the former Jeep factory site in central Toledo, around which the freeway curls from its I-475 junction to its viaduct over Berdan and Detroit avenues. The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority is redeveloping the site into an industrial park.

“One of the best examples [of a prime development site] is literally right behind us,” Mr. Sapara said from the lectern atop pavement that soon will be removed to make way for the reconfigured I-75/​I-475 junction, known locally as the “Jeep Split,” even though the last Jeep operations moved several miles away about a decade ago.

Glenda Bumgarner, ODOT’s deputy director for its Office of Jobs and Commerce, touted that agency’s role to rapidly respond with transportation-related projects to support business development.

The I-75 reconstruction, however, has followed a more traditional timetable. Planning for the project got under way in 2000.

Kokosing Construction Co.’s $132.1 million contract to rebuild I-75 between I-475 and Lagrange Street is the largest of about $766 million in projects ODOT’s district office in Bowling Green will manage this construction season.

That’s enough of a workload, spokesman Theresa Pollick said, that five smaller projects in the eastern part of the eight-county district will be managed instead by the Ashland office.

It’s also work that would have waited even longer, Ms. Pollick said, without the Kasich administration’s “Jobs and Transportation” plan that is using Ohio Turnpike-backed bonds to finance $3 billion in construction across northern Ohio.

Separate contracts for I-75 reconstruction between I-475 and Dorr Street and for upcoming widening from Lagrange to I-280 brings ODOT’s current I-75 bill in Toledo to $226.1 million, and it’s also in the middle of spending $261.2 million to add a third lane each way between Perrysburg and Findlay.

ODOT’s 76 total contracts this year in the district that spans from Williams County in the west to Seneca, Sandusky, and Ottawa counties in the east also includes eight along I-475 around western Toledo, several of which are already under way.

But numerous, smaller projects are also on tap this year, running heavily into repaving jobs on two-lane highways and a smattering of bridge and culvert replacements.

Resurfacing projects on State Rts. 18 and 19 and U.S. 224, all in Seneca County, and a bridge replacement on U.S. 6 in Sandusky County are among the projects the Ashland office will oversee on Bowling Green’s behalf.

The local district will retain management of resurfacing State Rt. 105 between Pemberville and U.S. 23; State Rt. 12 east of Bettsville, and State Rt. 412 between Fremont and Castalia.

Two roundabouts are to be built this year on district highways.

One will be on State Rt. 64 at Finzel Road, near the Anthony Wayne schools complex outside Whitehouse, and the other will be built on U.S. 6/​State Rt. 53 at Napoleon Road outside Fremont, including a new entrance to Terra Community College.

Terra will pay most of the latter project’s cost, ODOT said.

Landslide issues along the Maumee River’s banks will be targeted with several projects. In Wood County, sections of State Rt. 65 south of Perrysburg will be shored up, as will a stretch of State Rt. 110 in and near Napoleon in Henry County.

Construction is scheduled to start, meanwhile, on a replacement for the State Rt. 109 bridge, also known as the Damascus Bridge, south of Liberty Center.

Several projects on this year’s list represent the final stages of work begun last year, if not longer ago.

Largest among those a two-year, $30.8 million contract to stabilize an old gypsum mine beneath State Rt. 2 near the Ottawa-Erie International Airport east of Port Clinton.

That work, undertaken mostly between Labor Day and Memorial Day to avoid Route 2’s tourist-season traffic, is scheduled to end May 15.

Close behind is the $28.7 million overhaul of Toledo’s Anthony Wayne Bridge, which is officially scheduled to conclude Oct. 31.

Mr. Charvat said that project is likely to stretch into November because of steel repairs that were more extensive than originally anticipated.

The span, also known as the High Level Bridge, has been closed to traffic for nearly a year already.

Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.

First Published March 17, 2015, 4:00 a.m.