More concrete downtown?

As highway planners try to fix the tangle of unsafe ramps along the Innerbelt in downtown Cleveland, they are concluding that frontage roads are the solution. The construction of frontage roads running parallel to the highway would allow a number of ramps to be eliminated while still permitting traffic to be distributed to and from the highway.

To see a cross-section showing how the frontage roads would be build in the existing Innerbelt right-of-way, click here. Below is an illustration of what the frontage roads would look like from the air.

Source: Cleveland Innerbelt Study

One concern, is the how these new roads would impact the look and feel of downtown. Although the width of the right-of-way would not change, a pedestrian would see more lanes of concrete. To give one an appreciation of the visual impact, below are photos from Cincinnati that show a similar trench and frontage roads project through downtown. The result is an imposing swath of concrete separating downtown from the riverfront.

Highway trench in Cincinnati.

Frontage road along the trench in Cincinnati.

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