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Opportunity Corridor -- its 3.5-mile course is shown in this map -- has received federal clearance to proceed. A late fall construction start on the $331 million roadway connecting Interstate 490 and University Circle is expected.

(Ohio Department of Transportation)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Federal Highway Administration has given final environmental approval to the Opportunity Corridor, clearing the way for the Ohio Department of Transportation to move forward with the 3.5-mile, $331 million boulevard linking Interstate 490 and University Circle.

A 94-page environmental impact statement and "record of decision" on the roadway issued earlier this month (see in document viewer below) authorizes ODOT to proceed with detailed design, land acquisition and construction.

The 35-mph, four- to five-lane urban boulevard will stretch from I-490 and East 55th Street east to Chester Avenue and East 105th Streets. After it reaches I-490, people can drive to Interstates 77 and 90 and connect to western and southern suburbs or the airport. The other end is a gateway to University Circle and the eastern suburbs.

The first phase of Opportunity Corridor converts East 105th Street into a boulevard with planted medians and two or three lanes of traffic in each direction, as shown in this drawing.

The prime contractor for the $44 million first phase of the project -- widening East 105th Street between Chester and Quincy avenues, and adding a raised median to that part of the corridor – will likely be chosen by September, with construction getting underway this year.

"We know this can be a very vibrant community, and Opportunity Corridor accelerates that growth," said Vickie Eaton Johnson, executive director of Fairfax Renaissance Development Corp. "Our goal is to get people to come off Opportunity Corridor and come into the neighborhood and see what's going on."

Andrew Wright, general manager at Forge Products Corp, said now ODOT can push ahead with property appraisals. Some 64 homes, 25 businesses and the Greater Roman Baptist Church on Buckeye Road are in the path of construction.

Forge, at the site of the old Peerless Motor Co., is not directly on the route. But plans show that an adjacent building that Forge owns and currently uses for storage would have to be demolished.

"Hopefully, some property will become available on either side of us," Wright said.

With the federal signoff, the corridor is now on a fast track, said Chris Ronayne, president of the nonprofit University Circle Inc.

Construction is expected to start this fall on the first phase of the 3.5-mile Opportunity Corridor, shown in green here. East 105th Street from Chester Avenue south to Quincy Avenue will be reconstructed and widened. This stretch of the corridor will have two lanes southbound and three lanes northbound for most of its length, plus left turn lanes at intersections. It will be completed in fall 2016. The second phase, shown here in blue, will involve new construction between East 55th Street/Interstate 490 and East 105th Street. Construction is anticipated to start in the fall of 2015 and be completed in 2018.

The boulevard will enhance new University Circle projects including a $125 million expansion and renovation of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and $64 million conversion of the Temple-Tifereth Israel into a performing arts center for Case Western Reserve University, as well as more than $2 billion in additions to the Circle's three hospitals and the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ronayne said.

But just as important, he said, is the potential along Opportunity Corridor as it winds through some of Cleveland's poorest neighborhoods.

A third of the land in or near the route is vacant, much of it held in the Cuyahoga County landbank. There are about 280 acres bordering the roadway available for new residential or commercial construction -- a number that jumps to 470 acres, broken into nine districts, when adding in adjacent parcels.

"Hopefully, this gets us on a path for urban redevelopment in the three-mile corridor," Ronayne said.

ODOT has said all along the boulevard will be a business stimulator – opening up new economic development, and creating new jobs and a new identity for the community. Specifics about how that will occur are not spelled out in the highway administration's report this month.

A 2011 study by Allegro Realty Advisors for the Greater Cleveland Partnership calculated the road slicing through Central, Fairfax, Slavic Village, Kinsman and Woodland Hills/Buckeye before reaching University Circle would result in 2,300 permanent new jobs and 3,300 temporary ones.

ODOT will provide at least $500,000 for on-the-job training that targets local residents. The jobs could include construction work on the corridor itself. "Long-term benefits would be maximized if individuals who are trained can find permanent jobs," the highway administration said.

The Greater Cleveland Partnership's Deb Janik said connecting the corridor back to the residents and businesses that call the area home is "collectively what we have to do to leverage this investment.

"It's going to be awfully hard work and we have to stay at it," the partnership's senior vice president for real estate and development said.

A strong network of community development corporations will be at the forefront of advancing growth for the neighborhoods, but it will also take commitment from the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, the Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University, local businesses and others affected, Janik said.

Opponents say the project, at about $100 million per mile, costs too much. The money is better spent maintaining existing roads and improving public transit and walking and cycling pathways, they say.

Angie Schmitt, one of the organizers of Clevelanders for Transportation Equity, said ODOT didn't make many changes in response to comments and criticism it received.

For example, she said, ODOT decided against redesigning intersections that have a large curb radius that allows vehicles to shoot around corners faster than when intersections have 90-degree, sharp turns. ODOT said large trucks might hop curbs if there were sharp corners. Schmitt questioned that rationale given that only about 2 percent of the vehicles traveling Opportunity Corridor traffic are expected to be trucks.

Schmitt also said creating more dead-end streets and limiting intersections on the boulevard to 13 will make for "superblocks" that aren't pedestrian-friendly. And an upgrade to the rail station at East 105th Street and Quincy Avenue amounts to a paltry investment in public transit of less than 1 percent of the total project cost, she said.

ODOT spokeswoman Amanda McFarland noted several design changes the agency made based on public comments. They include:

• Reducing the width of through-lanes from 12 to 11 feet, and the width of turn lanes from 11 to 10 feet, as a way to calm traffic

• Eliminating a third eastbound lane between Woodland Avenue & East 93rd Street, and between Frank and Cedar avenues

• Adding mid-block pedestrian crossings to the median between Quincy and Cedar

ODOT also agreed to pay 80 percent of the cost, up to $3.2 million, of extending the RTA platform at East 105th and adding new handicapped access.