Backups in the left lane of eastbound I-475 have been around for decades, and they’re the main reason the Ohio Department of Transportation is spending close to $200 million to rebuild that freeway’s junction with I-75.
But when, as part of that campaign’s second half, state contractors set up a crossover lane on northbound I-75 across the Detroit-Berdan viaduct late last month, the backups on eastbound I-475 immediately worsened, an ODOT spokesman said Wednesday.
The longer backups and resulting chaos of motorists trying to get into the left lane from the ProMedica Parkway entrance to reach the ramp to northbound I-475 is why the ProMedica ramp has now been closed, spokesman Theresa Pollick explained.
“Once we started those lane restrictions on I-75, it just amplified the problem,” Ms. Pollick said, noting that traffic sometimes has backed up to Secor Road.
Review of traffic-camera video, she said, showed that unsafe behavior by drivers entering from the ProMedica ramp was “going on all day long,” whereas on Wednesday, after the ramp closed, traffic flow improved noticeably. The closing is not permanent, but it is long-term.
While state officials will continually assess traffic flow leading into and through the multiple construction zones on I-75 in Toledo, Ms. Pollick said, it’s likely the ProMedica entrance to eastbound I-475 won’t reopen before the middle of next year, and it might stay closed until mid-2018, when all I-75 construction near the I-475 junction is scheduled to end.
Built between 2010 and 2013, the ProMedica interchange replaced a hodgepodge of ramps connecting I-475 with Jackman Road and Central and Upton avenues.
During the current ramp closing, traffic will be directed to use the Douglas Road entrance, about a half mile farther west.
Ms. Pollick said she did not have a traffic count for how many motorists use the closed ProMedica ramp. About 51,000 vehicles use the eastbound I-475 ramp to northbound I-75 on an average day, she said.
State officials do not believe the ProMedica entrance will be a safety problem in the long term, the ODOT spokesman said.
“In the future, that congestion will not exist,” Ms. Pollick said, referring to the left-lane backups on eastbound I-475. “The problem is traffic does not know how to handle the congestion.”
Robin Whitney, ProMedica Health System’s vice president for property acquisition and development, said she doubted the detour would significantly affect either the hospital’s operations or major construction planned there.
"ODOT has been in communication with us,” Ms. Whitney said. “I don't think it will have any effect on the project. We are just trying to make sure our patients and visitors understand what is going on with ODOT."
Staff writer Marlene Harris-Taylor contributed to this report.
Contact David Patch at: dpatch@theblade.com or 419-724-6094.
First Published May 7, 2015, 4:00 a.m.