Ramp work, other repairs to shut I-280

Enlarge

With more ramp work needed at the I-280/I-75 junction in North Toledo this weekend, the Ohio Department of Transportation has decided to schedule several other repair and maintenance projects along the freeway that will shut the highway down entirely north of Navarre Avenue on Saturday.

Maintenance on the Craig Memorial Bridge's center locks, bridge painting at the I-280/I-75 junction, and installation of overhead signs between Front Street and Navarre would have required traffic disruptions anyway, so it made sense to schedule those and other tasks together, ODOT spokesman Joe Rutherford said yesterday.

Barricades will go up at 5 a.m. on southbound I-280 and at 7 a.m. for the northbound lanes. Through traffic will be detoured via State Rt. 795 and I-75.

The northbound lanes are to reopen by 8 p.m. Saturday.

On the southbound side, the Craig bridge will reopen for local traffic at 8 p.m. Saturday. Except for the ramp from southbound I-75 to southbound I-280, the rest of I-280 is scheduled to reopen at noon Sunday.

The ramp is slated for reopening at 6 a.m. Monday.

During the last 18 hours that the ramp is closed, traffic will be detoured on southbound

I-75 to Phillips Avenue, then directed to return north on I-75 to I-280. Phillips will be used for the detour this time, instead of the Stickney Avenue-Lagrange Street interchange, because it has traffic signals on its ramps, Mr. Rutherford said.

The weekend's work will give returning motorists a much smoother ride on that ramp and through the bridge construction zone between Greenbelt Parkway and Summit Street in both directions.

After many months of driving on temporary pavement, traffic on the southbound I-75 exit ramp will begin using one lane of the permanent, two-lane concrete roadway on Monday morning.

Repairs will be made, meanwhile, to the battered asphalt in the work area farther south, where traffic snakes around piers for the new bridge over the Maumee River.

"We want to get in there and give a safe riding surface for the winter," Mr. Rutherford said.

With I-280 widening now completed in East Toledo, traffic patterns this weekend will be rearranged for the last time there before the new bridge opens, he said.

The only roadway closing Saturday morning that will stay shut past Monday morning is the southbound I-75/I-280 exit to Manhattan Boulevard. It won't reopen until Oct. 2.

Contact David Patch at:

dpatch@theblade.com

or 419-724-6094.