BRUNSWICK, Ohio — Neighbors along the Strongsville-Brunswick border are intensifying their fight against a proposed highway interchange. The latest efforts come after the first part of a feasibility study was released this week.
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Many of the people signing petitions at North Park live on or near Boston Road. The two-lane residential street is the dividing line between Brunswick in Medina County and Strongsville in Cuyahoga County. It’s also the area of focus for a possible future access point to I-71.
“What I love about it is we have a bunch of trees and it’s quiet because it’s only a two-lane road,” said Cindy Meadows. “Everybody’s angry, very angry.”
The anger ignited in late March when State Representative Tom Patton (R-Strongsville), the chair of the House Finance Subcommittee on Transportation, added language to the state transportation budget to include funding for such a project. It requires ODOT to ensure there is 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.
This week, a feasibility study commissioned by the City of Strongsville was released with preliminary data and several possible options to create access to I-71 from Boston Road. Strongsville-based engineering firm Euthenics, Inc. compiled the 714-page report.
The project itself has stirred controversy between Strongsville and its southern neighbor Brunswick for decades. Brunswick leaders and neighbors told News 5 they were frustrated by the recent steps toward making the proposal a reality.
“Everyone that lives in the city that understands the scope and impact that this creates for the future of the city, of northern Medina county, will also join us in being angry,” said Brunswick City Council member-at-large Joe Delsanter.”
Supporters of an additional highway access point believe it will alleviate traffic and safety concerns on a busy stretch of Route 82 in Strongsville. The feasibility study points to high crash rates at the Route 82/I-71 interchange and says traffic projections show many of the intersections in the area will reach “unacceptable” levels of service in the coming decades.
Some opponents of the Boston Road interchange attribute the issues along Routh 82 to overdevelopment and poor planning in Strongsville.
“You wanted your mall? You got it. You wanted all those delicious places to eat on 82? You got them. So now you’ve got to deal with the traffic that goes along with the money that you’re making,” said Dan Durante.
Durante lives in the Waite Farms development in Brunswick. The neighborhood is adjacent to I-71 and connects to Boston Road near the highway overpass. One rendering included in the recent study shows an on-ramp to I-71 North cutting through the northwest corner of the development.
The study includes an image of what a full interchange and four alternative plans could look like at the Boston Road overpass. All of the renderings show access points cutting through what are currently yards and homes. Durante said that even if his home was spared by an interchange project, the father of two would be concerned about living near the highway access.
“The furthest [thing] from my mind is me dealing with traffic and me being in my car longer. I don’t care about that,” he said. “It’s my kids, the kids in this neighborhood, the safety of them that worries me about this whole proposal.”
The study also says any interchange or alternative would require the widening of Boston Road to accommodate increased traffic. Such an endeavor would require extensive coordination with the energy supplier responsible for two petroleum lines on the south side of Boston Road. Relocating the fuel lines could cost around $5.5 million.
It’s among the safety concerns shared by neighbors along the city border. So far they said they’ve collected hundreds of signatures on a petition calling on the ODOT director to halt the project.
“We’re going to fight harder than people think we are,” said Delsanter.
News 5 reached out to Strongsville city leaders on Thursday and Friday but has not heard back. They previously said if and when the project moves forward, they would collect feedback from both communities.
The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) said a second segment of the feasibility study will include a public involvement plan and at least one public meeting. The NOACA Board will eventually vote on whether to approve the project on a regional level but does not have a timeline for when that would happen.
You can find the entire feasibility study by clicking on this link.
