Pedestrians are usually forbidden on I-75, but the Ohio Department of Transportation will make a special exception Monday afternoon when it marks the imminent completion of the replacement DiSalle Bridge.
The opening of the new bridge’s northbound lanes the following weekend will mark the last major milestone of ODOT’s massive I-75 reconstruction project between downtown Toledo and Glenwood Road in Rossford.
That completes $1.1 billion in I-75 construction between Toledo and Lima over about a dozen years, ODOT said. Those projects have featured complete reconstruction between I-280 in Toledo and U.S. 68/State Rt. 15 in Findlay and around Lima.
After an ODOT dedication ceremony at 1 p.m. Monday, the public can walk the new bridge and take pictures.
Among other things, the bridge walk will provide a rare opportunity for people with longer-lensed cameras to photograph the Glass City River Wall mural from the DiSalle Bridge, upon which motorists are not allowed to stop except in emergencies.
Public parking will be available at Hollywood Casino Toledo. Shuttle buses to and from the bridge will operate between noon and 4 p.m.
Meanwhile, the transfer of northbound traffic onto its permanent lanes between Wales Road in Northwood and South Avenue in Toledo will start at 4 a.m. Friday, when the Wales entrance to the northbound side will close until sometime the following afternoon.
At 8 p.m., northbound traffic will be reduced to one lane near the Wales and Miami Street interchanges for final paving and implementation of the traffic shift.
Northbound ramps at the Miami and South Avenue interchanges will intermittently close on Aug. 12 until the shift is complete. ODOT said those ramps may also be closed at night earlier in the week for final paving.
Once I-75’s mainline stripe painting is complete during the afternoon of Aug. 12, two northbound lanes will be open on the permanent northbound side. A third lane will open later.
After traffic is switched, the main items left on the project will be final southbound paving, finishing the median barrier wall, completing concrete sealing, and final pavement markings, said Kelsie Hoagland, an ODOT spokesman.
“We are excited for the final two installments of the I-75 corridor reconstruction to be coming to an end,” Patrick McColley, ODOT’s district deputy director in Bowling Green, said in a written statement. “This decade-long revitalization plays a critical role in the growth of our region that we will continue to see in the coming generations.”
ODOT began its broader I-75 campaign by rebuilding the former Lima Bypass starting in 2012.
Major I-75 work in Toledo began in 2014 with a two-year reconstruction between I-475 and Dorr Street began. No substantial changes to that part of the freeway were included.
But later that year, work to widen 31 miles of I-75 between Perrysburg and Findlay from four lanes to six got started, and in 2015, reconstruction of I-75’s “Jeep Split” interchange with I-475 and its I-280 interchange in North Toledo, plus widening of the freeway in between, began.
That project’s completion in early 2019 slightly overlapped the start of the final two ODOT contracts for I-75 work in the immediate Toledo area. First to start was reconstruction between Dorr Street and South Avenue, which began in late 2018. Then work began in late 2019 on the final stage between South and Glenwood, including the new DiSalle.
The work between Dorr and Glenwood included adding a third through lane between Indiana Avenue and the Anthony Wayne Trail interchange, and a fourth lane across the DiSalle in each direction. The old DiSalle required traffic entering from ramps at either end to merge immediately, with no acceleration lane.
The I-75 campaign’s biggest hiccup occurred in 2016, when the discovery of soil problems beneath the junction of I-75 and I-280 prompted the complete shutdown of I-75’s northbound lanes for seven months while two bridges within that junction were replaced.
Traffic was diverted south on I-280 to temporary turnaround ramps at Central Avenue, from which it then returned north to rejoin I-75.
The “Jeep Split” reconstruction had been preceded by work between 2010 and 2013 to widen I-475 from that I-75 junction out to Rushland Avenue, just west of the Douglas Road interchange.
Most of the I-75 widening between Toledo and Findlay was finished in early 2017. The exception was a separate contract to add the new lanes through the city of Findlay and rebuild the massive junction with U.S. 68/State Rt. 15 on Findlay’s south side, which was done between 2017 and 2020.
First Published August 4, 2023, 9:06 p.m.
