Cincinnati council opposes I-75/Hopple plans

Cincinnati City Council has voted to oppose the current proposal for a rebuilt I-75/Hopple Street interchange, which they say would cause visual destruction to an important gateway into Uptown.

In a resolution passed last week, council has asked the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to study how the proposed construction project will affect existing businesses, and to develop an alternative proposal that would keep the intersection of Hopple Street and Central Parkway at-grade and business impacts to a minimum.

"The intersection of Hopple Street and Central Parkway is a major gateway into Uptown, Cincinnati's second largest employment area, a shopping and entertainment destination, and home to many of the City's largest and most important institutions, including the University of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Zoo, and several of the city's largest hospitals," the resolution says.

As Phase 4 of the Mill Creek Expressway project, the $117 million reconstruction project would rebuild I-75 from between the Western Hills Viaduct to the Monmouth Street overpass.

As designed, Hopple Street would connect with W Martin Luther King Drive via a bridge over Central Parkway, with a flyover connector curving down to the parkway approximately in the area of W McMicken Avenue.

The northbound off-ramp would be relocated to a right-side exit, meeting Hopple Street between the interstate and the connector.

The resolution says that the intersection needs to be a gateway that is visually commensurate with the importance of the Uptown neighborhoods.

"The current proposal for the Hopple Street/I-75 Interchange will create a series of ramps and bridges that will block view lines, destroy the character of the parkway, and change the vsual orientation of the Hopple Street/Central Parkway Intersection from an urban crossroads to one dominated by expressway ramps," it says.

The City is hoping to use a federal earmark funds for additional studies and alternatives that would not include a flyover connection to Central Parkway.

Copies of the resolution have been sent to Governor Ted Strickland, all Cincinnati members of the Ohio General Assembly, director of ODOT Jim Beazley, and ODOT project manager Stefan Spinosa.

The project team is currently preparing the first draft of the environmental document, and a public hearing on the preferred alternative is scheduled for later this year.

Construction on Phase 4 is scheduled for between 2013 and 2015.

Image credit: I-75 Mill Creek Expressway