Ohio Turnpike
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The westbound Ohio Turnpike |
The
Ohio Turnpike (officially the
James W. Shocknessy Ohio Turnpike) is a publicly-built toll east-west expressway across northern
Ohio. It enters Ohio at the
Pennsylvania state line near
Petersburg, Ohio, feeding to and from the
Pennsylvania Turnpike and at the
Indiana state line, feeding to and from the
Indiana Toll Road near
Columbia, Ohio. To the west it leads toward
South Bend, Indiana and
Chicago, Illinois; to the east it leads toward
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and points in the middle-Atlantic states. It passes such large cities as
Toledo,
Cleveland,
Akron, and
Youngstown.
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Ohio Turnpike road marker |
The Turnpike was built during the
1950s by the Ohio Turnpike Commission which continues to own and operate it. The portion east of the
Ohio State Highway 18 exit (near the present-day
Interstate 76/
Interstate 80 exit) was opened December 1, 1954, and the remaining portion to the west was opened October 1, 1955. Tolls, collected at interchanges and near the state line by ticket upon leaving the Turnpike, financed the cost of original construction and debt service and now maintenance and renovation projects. All of it is incorporated into the
Interstate Highway System as
Interstate 80 and
Interstate 90 west of
Greater Cleveland,
Interstate 80 south of Cleveland and north of Akron, and
Interstate 76 between the junction of Interstates 76 and 80 west of Youngstown and the Pennsylvania state line. It was built as a long-distance route, and nowhere as an urban highway; it in fact skirts the large cities along its path, probably as cost-containment. It should be noted that the Ohio Turnpike actually enters within the city limits of a number of cities along its route--notably, Toledo, Elyria, and several cities in the Southern portion of
Cuyahoga County. However, unlike other Interstates in Ohio and most other states, the Ohio Turnpike does not include any city limit signs. However, it does note county boundaries, although in a different format than is used elsewhere in Ohio by signing such boundaries as "(Name of County) CO LINE".
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Typical modernized service area |
Like many other tolled interstates, the Ohio Turnpike has had service areas since its inception, with food and fuel as well as bathrooms, rather than rest areas with just bathrooms. Since exit and entry points are relatively few, and exiting/re-entering is time consuming compared to a freeway, these areas have a captive audience. The Turnpike Commission has recently modernized many of them, and most areas have 2 or 3 different well known fast food chains, and possibly a sit down restaurant. They also include gift shops, information counters, and bathroom facilities inside, and large fueling areas for passenger and cargo vehicles. Food choices vary from one area to the next. Fuel service
gasoline and
diesel fuel is provided by
Sunoco.
Service areas are located at the following mile posts, one on each side of the Turnpike: 20 (closed until late 2006 for the aforementioned modernization project), 49, 76, 100, 139, 170, 197, and 237. After re-construction of the pair of service areas at mile 20 is completed in late 2006, only the pairs at mile 49 and mile 237 will not yet have been modernized.
The Turnpike had relatively few access points (17) when built, but in recent years more have been added. Some of those access points, new and old, include
Interstate 75 and
Interstate 280 near Toledo and serving also southeastern
Michigan; Interstate 90,
Interstate 71, and
Interstate 480, serving Cleveland;
Interstate 77 and
Ohio State Highway 8, serving Cleveland, Akron, and
Canton; Interstate 76 and 80, which switch highways, serving Akron to the west and Youngstown to the east, and
Interstate 680, leading to and from Youngstown.
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Standard Ohio Turnpike ticket, in this case for a Class 1 vehicle (two-axle car without trailer) entering at Exit 218 |
In 1998, the turnpike commission began phasing in the marking of exits by milepost. The old exit numbering system was phased out within four years.
The segment between the Indiana state line and Cleveland is part of (with the Indiana Toll Road) what
John Steinbeck called "US 80/90" (by mistake). It's low, flat, and with few curves, with little scenic attraction. East of Cleveland it enters more hilly terrain that becomes characteristic of western Pennsylvania.
The 'toll booth' scene in the movie
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which supposedly occurred at the western end of the toll road, is not a genuine portrayal of the toll road. In fact, neither the Ohio Turnpike nor the Indiana Toll Road approach
Muncie, Indiana, the setting of this and other Indiana scenes of the movie.
In December 2004, the Turnpike raised the speed limit for heavy trucks to 65 mph (105 km/h), creating a uniform speed limit for all traffic. For years, trucks had avoided the Turnpike due to large toll increases in the 1990s, and because they could travel for free at the same speed on parallel highways such as SR 2 and US 20. Truck traffic clogged the downtown shopping areas of such US 20 towns as
Clyde,
Fremont, and
Norwalk, essentially driving away customers who didn't want to deal with the truck traffic; shopkeepers begged the state for relief for years.
Eventually, with some prodding by
Governor Bob Taft, the Ohio Turnpike Commission lowered truck tolls and implemented the uniform 65 mph speed limit on December 8, 2004. Truck traffic levels have been estimated to be 20% higher on the Turnpike since these changes were made. This speed limit is unique in Ohio, as a 55-mph statutory speed limit applies to trucks on every other highway in the state.
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List of toll roads*
Ohio Turnpike Commission
