The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency has joined many residents around Brunswick and Strongsville in supporting two bills that would repeal part of a law requiring an interchange for I-71 around the cities.
On Friday, NOACA adopted a resolution supporting HB 276 and SB 155, which would remove language added to the Transportation Budget earlier this year.
In March, Strongsville State Representative Tom Patton, who is also the chair of the House Finance Subcommittee on Transportation, added language to the transportation bill requiring limited access on and off ramps every 4.5 miles on the interstate between cities with more than 35,000 people when at least one of the cities is in a county with more than one million people.
Some believe the inclusion was tailor-made to create highway access on Boston Road between Strongsville and Brunswick. At the time, Patton told News 5 that such a project would help alleviate heavy traffic and safety concerns on Route 82 in Strongsville.
“As I mentioned to the governor, I said this will be the poster child for this safety project,” Patton said earlier this year.
A feasibility study partially funded by the City of Strongsville pointed to high crash rates at the Route 82/I-71 interchange, projecting that intersections in the area will reach “unacceptable” levels of service in the coming decades.
The study looked at several options for creating highway access at Boston Road. All of the combinations of on and off-ramps found it would likely be necessary to widen the 2-lane residential street and relocate a fuel pipeline on the road.
It also confirmed the fears of many who live near Boston Road: homes and neighborhoods would likely be displaced by a partial or full interchange project.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s literally heartbreaking,” Tom Helderman told News 5 during an interview for a follow-through report in October. He is a Strongsville resident whose home is among the closest to I-71 on Boston Road. “It’s devastated what we have worked for to raise our family for the last 24 years in our home. For what? For a few minutes of someone sitting in traffic?”
Watch our follow-through report below:
RELATED: Boston Road neighbors share concerns about proposed interchange in statehouse testimony
A feasibility study completed earlier this year showed that additional highway access points would reduce some congestion, but backups would still likely occur on Route 82.
The NOACA’s endorsement of HB 276 and SB 155 adds more support to the two bills, both of which have sat in committee since September.
