The Inner Belt Bridge Will Fully Open Next Week

Update: One more week.

The George V. Voinovich Bridge will fully open with all lanes next Monday. Today, all five lanes of the westbound bridge are open. In the coming seven days, final detours will be taken care of to allow for the eastbound side to open as well.

It’s been five long years since the project began.

The 3,918-foot-long bridge cost about a half a billion dollars to complete and replaces the original Inner Belt Bridge that was constructed in 1959. The westbound portion was completed in 2013 and has been handling all traffic until recently.

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(Original story 9/14/16): Construction of the George V. Voinovich Bridge, a.k.a the new Inner Belt Bridge, is coming to an end some five years after it began.

The eastbound bridge will get a grand opening celebration on September 24 with the usual muckity mucks in attendance. Then, two of those lanes — one from 71 North and one from I-90 — will open on the 25th. And then in October the entire bridge with all its glorious new lanes will open. The small gap before 100% functionality stems from a lot of restriping and un-detouring of detours ODOT needs to complete.

Work will continue on and around the bridge in the meantime, including on the Ontario St. ramp and the W. 14th northbound ramp. 

You can read more about the progress and remaining work in ODOT’s monthly newsletter on the GVV here.

The 3,918-foot-long bridge cost about a half a billion dollars to complete and replaces the original Inner Belt Bridge that was constructed in 1959. The westbound portion was completed in 2013 and has been handling all traffic since then.

This article appears in Sep 14-20, 2016.