Cleveland's Opportunity Corridor Finishes Phase II Construction

CLEVELAND — Phase II of the sweeping Opportunity Corridor project opened to traffic on Thursday. The effort to expand highway access to isolated Cleveland communities, dubbed the "Forgotten Triangle," has one, final phase of construction remaining.

The $35-million Phase II portion of the project saw the creation of a new E. 105th Street Bridge, passing over the Norfolk Southern Railroad; and the expansion of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority platform. Minor construction projects will continue in the area through spring 2019, but officials doubt there will be much impact on traffic.

"Outside of the transportation benefits it could bring to the Cleveland area, this effort opens the potential for new economic development, new jobs and a new identity for the community,” said Myron Pakush, ODOT District 12 deputy director. “Not only have we met all of our goals so far for local hiring and on-the-job training, we’ve exceeded them.”

Phase III of the Opportunity Corridor project will be far more expansive. Kokosing Construction was awarded a $150 million bid to connect I-490/I-77 to E. 93rd Street. Their work will include building two new pedestrian bridges, four new bridges over the boulevard, six signalized intersections, new water mains, new sanitary and storm sewers, tree lawns, sidewalks, and a shared-use path. The final phase of the Opportunity Corridor project isn't expected to be finished until 2021, ODOT said.

Phase I of the project was finished in fall 2017, when crews widened E. 105th Street, between Quebec and Chester avenues.

Several isolated, economically starved communities are expected to benefit from the Opportunity Corridor project. ODOT officials have specifically said Slavic Village, Kinsman, Buckeye-Shaker, Fairfax, and Central neighborhoods should all see an increase in jobs and access to downtown services.

Critics of the project have said the extolled and projected benefits are a farce. A lawsuit against the project was dismissed in February 2018, but raised questions about how construction was being financed. Noted columnist and activist Mansfield Frazier said the Opportunity Corridor isn't about "whisking" people into Cleveland, it's about whisking them out.

"But the promise of jobs and business development along the Opportunity Corridor is perhaps the biggest whopper those who shill for the powerbrokers have ever been tasked to pitch. This lie is so laughable it can’t pass the straight face test … unless the businesses they’re talking about are more corner stores that sell Black & Milds, forty-ounces and fake nails," he wrote in a column for Cool Cleveland.

Still, the project marches forward. The impact it will inevitably have on Cleveland's "Forgotten Triangle" will reveal itself only in time.

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