US 20 in Ohio

According to itypejob, US 20 is a US Highway in the US state of Ohio. The road forms an east-west route through the north of the state, along the border with Michigan and along the coast of vast Lake Erie. The road passes through the cities of Toledo and Cleveland. The road is 420 kilometers long.

Travel directions

US 20 at Elmore, east of Toledo.

Western Ohio

US 20 in Indiana comes from South Bend. For the first 100 miles in Ohio, US 20 is a single-lane highway through flat meadows parallel to the Ohio Turnpike. There are no noteworthy places on the route to the city of Toledo. US 20 remains in the suburbs of Toledo and runs north-south as an urban arterial, parallel to Interstate 475. The road heads south, crossing the Maumee River between Maumee and Perrysburg. There is also a connection to Interstate 75 in Perrysburg.

It then follows an approximately 80-mile stretch through central northern Ohio, through Fremont and Norwalk, south of the Ohio Turnpike, and further south of Lake Erie. This route is relatively well developed, almost completely with 4 lanes and has bypasses at Fremont and Norwalk. In Fremont there is a short double numbering with US 6. The US 250 connects in Norwalk. Between Norwalk and Oberlin, the US 20 is single-lane.

Cleveland Region

The Detroit-Superior Bridge over the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland.

The US 20 then forms a freeway for 10 kilometers to Elyria. Here State Route 10 continues and exits US 20 to run as an urban arterial through Elyria and the southwestern suburbs of Cleveland. It crosses the Ohio Turnpike without a connection and I-90 then parallels US 20 to Cleveland. The passage through the city of Cleveland coincides completely with US 6. Crosses the Cuyahoga River via the landmark Detroit-Superior Bridge, then US 20 crosses Public Square in downtown Cleveland. The US 20 then follows a series of urban arterialseastward and later northeast through eastern Cleveland and the northeastern suburbs. The US 6 splits off at Euclid.

Eastern Ohio

After Euclid, the US 20 continues for another 30 kilometers through built-up areas, through a series of distant Cleveland suburbs that sit on Lake Erie. US 20 runs here as a city highway between I-90 and State Route 2. Painesville is Cleveland’s last true suburb, then US 20 forms a narrow four-lane road parallel to Lake Erie to Ashtabula. There is a lot of construction along this part of the route. US 20 runs right through the town of Ashtabula and crosses State Route 11. The last place before the Pennsylvania border is Conneaut. Then US 20 in Pennsylvania continues to Erie.

History

According to itypeusa, US 20 was created in 1926. The route hasn’t changed substantially in Ohio since then. US 20 has an alternate route in western Ohio. Highways are built parallel to US 20, making it primarily a secondary function within the road network. A small section of US 20 between Oberlin and North Ridgeville near Cleveland has been converted to a freeway.

Circa 2003, the bridge over the Maumee River between Maumee and Perrysburg was replaced by a wider 4-lane bridge, slightly adjacent to the old bridge.

Divided highway

West of Cleveland, US 20 was the main east-west route of northwest Ohio before the Ohio Turnpike opened in 1955. Various parts have already been widened to 2×2 lanes for this purpose. Between 1945 and 1948, a 19-kilometer stretch from Woodville to Fremont was widened to 2×2 lanes. In 1946, a fairly long 20-mile section between Fremont and Bellevue was widened to 2×2 lanes, as was a short section between Monroeville and Norwalk. In 1955, two grade separations opened near Lemoyne, then constructed as part of the later Interstate 280 to Toledo. Around 1958, the Fremont freeway bypass opened to traffic. The Norwalk freeway bypass opened to traffic around 1968.

Elyria Bypass

The Elyria bypass has its origins in OH-10, which formed a regular two-lane route past Elyria and later transformed into a freeway. The US 20 passed through the center of Elyria for a longer period of time. As early as the second half of the 1960s, some grade separations of OH-10 were constructed, but it was not until about 1976 before this became a 2×2 lane freeway, then only from Oberlin to OH-57 on the east side of Elyria. The missing section beyond the Ohio Turnpike and I-480 was opened circa 1982.

Cleveland

The Detroit-Superior Bridge over the Cuyahoga River near downtown Cleveland was built between 1914 and 1948. This is a large steel arch bridge and was the first high fixed bridge in the Cleveland area. The monumental bridge was one of the largest in the world at the time. It is a double deck bridge where the lower level was used for a tram. In 1968-1969 the carriageway was widened to 4 lanes, by narrowing the footpath, with 3 lanes through the inside of the arch and an extra lane on the outside. Since 1974, the bridge has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.