Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley said Thursday there could be a solution to maintain interstate access to Cincinnati State as the work to rebuild Interstate 75 continues.
The current plan calls for the eastbound I-74 ramp to Central Parkway to be removed. Cincinnati State officials have been complaining about the issue for months.
Cranley raised the access issue with Ohio Governor John Kasich during a meeting at city hall on Wednesday.
“The bad news is that we’re pretty far down the road in terms of the design of 75, and it’s going to be hard to preserve that access of 74,” Cranley said. “The good news is that the governor immediately in our meeting yesterday called the head of ODOT and asked him to immediately start working on solutions that would be a win/win for this traffic potential problem.”
Mayor Cranley already had a meeting scheduled Thursday with Ohio Department of Transportation Director Jerry Wray, who had a couple possible alternatives to maintain Cincinnati State access.
“That we’re going to be sharing with the Cincinnati State folks and President O’dell Owens, and we’ll see where it goes,” Cranley said. “There’s no guarantee we can get it approved by the Federal Highway Administration. But the fact that they worked so quickly to try to find a solution that would be good for the Clifton-area and for Cincinnati State I think is refreshing.”
Cranley said U.S. Representatives Steve Chabot and Brad Wenstrup and Ohio Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman are supportive of making changes.
