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I-480 Bridge

I-480 Bridge

I-480 Bridge Location

Garfield Heights, Ohio, Valley View, Ohio, and Independence, Ohio

Year of Construction: 1972-78

Length of Bridge Span: 4,155-Feet

Height of the Bridge: 212-Feet above the Cuyahoga River

Average Auto Traffic Daily: 120,000 Cars, trucks, and buses.

History: When Cleveland's freeway system was established, I-480 was referred as the Outerbelt South Freeway, the freeway construction in 1971 was tied into the Willow Freeway or I-77, in Independence. There was a need to connect the east and west sides of Cleveland and the Outerbelt South Freeway was that freeway. In 1971, Construction of the Outerbelt South Freeway had started in Garfield Heights, and another section in Independence was being built. There was one problem, the Cuyahoga Valley and Valley View which is lower than the Cities of Garfield Heights and Independence was an obstacle.

Engineering and design firms came up with a solution. The solution was two parallel bridge decks carrying vehicles, one deck would be for westbound traffic and another for eastbound traffic. The engineers also thought of another solution, each section of bridge would be 93-feet long beams that would be connected by steel bolts. The bridge supports would be in concrete also spaced 93-feet. The support pillars were completed within two years and the decking within four years. In 1978, the bridge opened connecting Cleveland's east side to the west side, also now people had access to I-77 and a 25 minute trip from Macedonia into Downtown Cleveland now took 15 minutes.

The bridge has been renovated due to age and weather conditions. In 1999, ODOT-or the Ohio Department of Transportation had painted the bridge a red-primer color, originally I-480 Bridge was gray when it was completed in 1978. The red primer color was liked by the Cuyahoga Valley National Park people in Valley View, so ODOT kept the color red.

There have been series of suicides of the I-480 Bridge, so the Valley View Police Department has a specially trained Police officer in suicides. Valley View does have jurisdiction on the Bridge, but usually they get mutual aid from Garfield Heights or Independence Police/Fire Departments. In 1994, a car fell off the bridge killing the driver instantly. In 1988, police and fire responded to a dangling semi-truck, luckily the trucker was not hurt, but was shaken.

Sources

• ODOT-Ohio Department of Transportation
• Roadfan
• Garfield Heights Neighborhood News
• Garfield Heights Historical Society