Interstate 70 in Ohio

Interstate 70 or I -70 is an Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Ohio. The highway forms an east-west route through the center of the state, running from New Westville on the Indiana border through the major cities of Dayton and Columbus to Bridgeport on the West Virginia border. The route is 363 kilometers long.

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Travel directions

I-70/71 at Columbus.

I-70 between Columbus and Zanesville.

Western Ohio & Dayton

East of the town of Richmond, Interstate 70 in Indiana crosses the Ohio border from Indianapolis and then crosses rural areas into the Dayton region. This route is 40 kilometers long and leads through a flat area with meadows. This part has 2×2 lanes. I-70 doesn’t actually go through Dayton, but it runs through the northern edge of the metropolitan area. From the suburb of Englewood, I-70 has 2×3 lanes. At Vandalia there is an interchange with Interstate 75. They also cross the Great Miami River. US 40 also parallels I-70 in western Ohio a short distance north of it.

Northeast of Dayton, Interstate 675 ends at I-70. I-675 forms Dayton’s eastern bypass. Shortly thereafter, State Route 4 branches off as a freeway into downtown Springfield, while I-70 runs along the southern edge of Springfield. It also crosses US 68 at Springfield . There is then another 60-kilometer rural stretch from Springfield to Columbus. This section has a continuous 2×3 lane and leads through flat agricultural land.

Columbus

I-70 traverses the city of Columbus from west to east through downtown. I-70 has 2×3 lanes until the interchange with the Interstate 270 ring road, followed by a 2×4 lane until the junction with Interstate 670. I-670 runs along the north side of downtown while I-70 runs along the south side of downtown. In Columbus one crosses the Scioto River, there is also a short double numbering with Interstate 71, which runs from Cincinnati to Clevelandcarries. Remarkably enough, the double numbering only has 2×3 lanes. East of Downtown Columbus, I-70 briefly has 2×4 lanes, then narrows again to 2×3 lanes. East of Columbus, US 33 also branches off to southeastern Ohio. Shortly thereafter, they cross I-270 for the second time. I-70 narrows to 2×2 lanes fairly quickly after that, leaving the metropolitan area of ​​Columbus.

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Eastern Ohio

East of Columbus follows a 180-kilometer stretch to the border with West Virginia. The landscape changes on this route, the prairies give way to forests and especially from Zanesville the terrain becomes more hilly. These are the first serious hills on the route of I-70 after Denver. The US 40 also runs parallel to I-70 a short distance here. In Zanesville one crosses the Muskingum River, at Cambridge a junction with Interstate 77 follows.

I-70 then continues east through a forested area with low hills. There are no longer any larger towns on the route to the West Virginia state border. Here, I-70 heads toward the Ohio River valley, which forms the state line. Just before the valley, Interstate 470 branches off as an alternate route around the West Virginia town of Wheeling. Through traffic is recommended to follow I-470. I-70 then crosses the western branch of the Ohio River to Wheeling Island, which also forms the border with West Virginia. Interstate 70 in West Virginia then continues through Wheeling toward Pennsylvania.

History

Construction history

The predecessor of I-70 is US 40, which in the 1950s was already largely widened to a 2×2 divided highway. I-70 was built parallel to US 40 not long after, often just a few miles away. Construction began soon after the creation of the Interstate Highways system in 1956, with the first section opening in 1959 spanning 21 miles between Kirkersville and Gratiot, just east of Columbus. Soon after, the St. Clairsville bypass opened in the east of the state, as well as a fairly long stretch from Clayton to Springfield in the west of the state.

In the mid-1960s, construction of I-70 progressed rapidly. In 1964, the westernmost section opened between the Indiana and Clayton border, as well as a longer section around Zanesville in eastern Ohio. In 1965, double-numbering with I-71 near downtown Columbus was completed, also opening the Cambridge bypass and a stretch from Morristown to St. Clairsville in eastern Ohio. East of St. Clairsville, the section opened up to Bridgeport near the West Virginia border.

In about 1967, the section opened from downtown Columbus to the east side of town, also opened the missing section between Zanesville and Cambridge and nearly the entire route in the eastern part of the state, with the exception of a short section near Morristown, which was completed in 1967. opened in 1968. Circa 1968-1969, the Springfield bypass opened in the west of the state, and the Columbus-Zanesville highway was also completed. This completed I-70 east of Columbus. Presumably in 1969 or 1970, the missing section opened between Springfield and Columbus.

Finally, the part to the west of Columbus had to be constructed. Most of it opened to traffic about 1973, between I-270 and US 40. The missing 3-kilometer stretch between US 40 and I-71 opened to traffic about 1975-1976, allowing I-70 to pass through the entire state.

Opening history

Widenings

Dayton

The oldest 2×3 section near Dayton is the dual-numbering State Route 4 between the military airport and SR-4 toward Springfield. This section was widened to 2×3 lanes before 1994.

In 2004-2005, I-70 between the Dayton Airport and I-75 was widened to 2×3 lanes. Subsequently, in 2014-2015, I-70 in northwest Dayton was widened to 2×3 lanes to SR-48 in Englewood. In about 2008, I-70 was widened to 2×3 lanes along the north side of Dayton, between I-75 and SR-4.

Springfield – Columbus

The oldest 2×3 section is located here between London and Columbus, which was widened to 2×3 lanes before 1994. In the second half of the 1990s, the first section of I-70 past Springfield was widened to 2×3 lanes between US 68 and SR-41. Around 2007, I-70 between US 40 at Springfield and US 42 near London was widened to 2×3 lanes. In 2012, a short section on the southeast side of Springfield between SR-41 and US 40 followed in 2014, a section between SR-4 and US 68 southwest of Springfield. A small portion of I-70 southwest of Springfield still had 2×2 lanes and was widened to 2×3 lanes in 2015, then the final 2×3 lane portion on the south side of Springfield was completed on July 12, 2022, covering the entire I-70. between Dayton and Columbus had 2×3 lanes.

Columbus

It is unclear whether I-70 in Columbus was ever widened. The entire route has had the current capacity of mostly 2×3 and sometimes 2×4 lanes since at least 1994.

Lane Configuration

Traffic intensities

38,000 vehicles cross the Indiana border every day, which can be explained by the fact that there is a regional city directly across the border. In Dayton, there are up to 75,000 vehicles. Between Springfield and Columbus, this drops to 52,000 vehicles. In Columbus, this rises to 146,000 vehicles for I-670. The double numbering with the I-71 counts 128,000 vehicles per day. Some 32,000 vehicles cross the West Virginia border every day. Major capacity issues do not arise on I-70 in Ohio.