The once “so-called” Opportunity Corridor is now officially the Opportunity Corridor, thanks to the standard Cleveland street signs, blue with white lettering, now installed on a portion of the three-mile boulevard that will ultimately connect 1-490 to University Circle.
Two signs have been installed, one at the Corridor’s intersection with E. 93rd and another at its intersection with Quincy. This is the Corridor’s so-called “Section 2.” It snakes behind the Juvenile Justice Center and includes a bike/pedestrian path and a median with plantings that will hopefully survive the winter. (It’s the segment in blue below.)
Thursday afternoon, officials gathered on what may or may not still be known as E. 105th Street to celebrate the newly completed section, which also includes, on the North side of Quincy, a bridge over the Norfolk Southern Railroad tracks. The bridge connects the completed E. 105th portion of the Corridor with Section 2. It should be officially open to vehicular traffic tomorrow.
Multiple public officials attended the ceremony, including representatives from ODOT, Mayor Frank Jackson, Ward 6 Councilman Blaine Griffin and RTA interim CEO Dr. Floun’say Caver. (The Quincy/105 Rapid stop is directly adjacent to the bridge and now has an expanded platform.)
He said that while there had been hiccups along the way, he was nevertheless still confident that the Opportunity Corridor would spur investments, jobs and real estate developments in historically forgotten neighborhoods and that these investments wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
“We can make this road an example of how things operate in Cleveland,” Jackson said, hands shoved in the pockets of his winter coat.
The third and final section of the Corridor is the longest. It’ll connect I-490 to E. 93rd and will include two new pedestrian bridges, four new bridges located over the boulevard, six signalized intersections, new water mains, new major sanitary and storm sewers, plus new sidewalks and a multi-purpose path. The $151 million contract was awarded to Kokosing Construction Company. It’s expected to open to traffic in fall 2021.
This article appears in Nov 28 – Dec 4, 2018.
According to the map and the timeframes given, users of this road will have to connect with 490 via East 55th, Woodland, and East 93rd for THREE MORE YEARS? WTF is taking so long? This shortcut has been in the works for at least a decade already, if not more. It was supposed to be done in 2019, and even that date has been pushed back (from the original completion date) several times. Crazy, man, crazy!
How hard is it to tear down some structures, build a couple of bridges, and lay down pavement? What’s up with all the delay? Eight-lane interstates were built through entire cities in a few years’ time. I want my shortcut, dammit, so I can save ten minutes on Wade Oval Wednesdays and get a better parking spot!
According to SCENE archived stories, the first closed-door discussions about the OC were held all the way back in 2005, followed by a story in the PD that same year. Things remained in the talking stage, both privately and publicly, for another seven years.
Public hearings were held, and maps and plans were first finalized in 2013. The city okayed the plans the following year. Construction began in 2015, a full decade after the original discussions.
Delays of various kinds pushed completion of the first stages back to this year, and completion of the whole project back to 2020. Now it’s 2021.
So the OC is now in its 14th year and still not done, including three years of actual construction so far, with three more to go. Sixteen years for a three-mile shortcut to University Circle from 490. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but their engineers and construction gangs probably got a lot more than three miles of Roman roads built in sixteen years. And two thousand years later, many of them are still in daily use.