Northbound I-280 section to be closed for 3 nights

3/16/2007

Northbound I-280 will be closed in Toledo for three nights next week for work overhead on the Veterans' Glass City Skyway, the Ohio Department of Transportation announced yesterday.

During the work hours of 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, crews will pour concrete for the parapet - or side barrier - walls on the new bridge between Summit Street and Greenbelt Parkway. Closing the freeway beneath the site is a safety precaution.

Northbound traffic will be detoured via State Rt. 795 and I-75. Local traffic will be allowed to use northbound I-280 as far as the Summit exit and north of the Greenbelt entrance.

Southbound I-280 will not be affected by the concrete work, but it remains reduced to one lane approaching the Maumee River because of the detour around the closed Martin Luther King, Jr., Bridge in downtown Toledo.

Andrea Voogd, a spokesman at the ODOT district office in Bowling Green, said the Craig Memorial Bridge will have to be closed temporarily sometime soon when parapets are poured for the Skyway's main span over the Maumee River, but she didn't know when that will happen.

"We're going to put that off as long as possible so we're not doing it when the King Bridge is closed," Ms. Voogd said.

The King has closed since Jan. 30 for replacement of its drawspans. City officials expect the second of four drawspan sections needed for the replacement to be barged into position today, and hope to reopen the King by March 25.