Port authority to give $50,000 toward I-75 widening study
9/23/2010The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority has approved a $50,000 contribution toward an Ohio Department of Transportation study that could lead to widening I-75 between Perrysburg and Findlay.
The study, expected to cost at least $650,000, will examine freight transportation throughout northwest Ohio and how it would be affected by widening that section of I-75, which has heavy truck traffic that is expected to increase once CSX opens a new train-to-truck terminal near North Baltimore next year.
ODOT has committed $450,000 to the study, while the Wood County Economic Development Corp., Wood County Port Authority, and Toledo Area Metropolitan Area Council of Governments all have put up $50,000, according to the resolution approved Thursday morning by the Toledo port authority's board of directors.
"This will be very beneficial to the port" of Toledo, director John Szuch, chairman of the agency's finance and development committee, said to recommend approval to his colleagues Thursday morning.
Widening I-75 between Perrysburg and Findlay has been on the metropolitan council's long-range planning list for years because of the heavy traffic on that route.