Interstate 480 (I-480) is a

auxiliary Interstate Highway Auxiliary Interstate Highways (also called three-digit Interstate Highways) are a supplemental subset of the freeways within the Interstate Highway System of the United States. Auxiliary routes are generally classified as spur routes, which con ...

I-80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

in the

US state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

that passes through much of the

Greater Cleveland The Cleveland metropolitan area, or Greater Cleveland as it is more commonly known, is the metropolitan area surrounding the city of Cleveland in Northeast Ohio, United States. According to the 2020 United States Census results, the five-county ...

area, including the southern parts of the city of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. I-480 is one of 13 auxiliary Interstate Highways in the state. The western terminus of I-480 is an interchange with I-80 and the

Ohio Turnpike The Ohio Turnpike, officially the James W. Shocknessy Ohio Turnpike, is a limited-access toll highway in the U.S. state of Ohio, serving as a primary corridor between Chicago and Pittsburgh. The road runs east–west in the northern section of ...

North Ridgeville North Ridgeville is a city located along the eastern border of Lorain County, Ohio. The city's population was 35,552 in 2020. North Ridgeville is the fastest-growing city in northern Ohio. It has been ranked the 13th safest city in the United Sta ...

. Starting east through suburban

Lorain County Lorain County is a County (United States), county in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 312,964. Its county seat is Elyria, Ohio, Elyria. The county was physicall ...

, I-480 enters

Cuyahoga County Cuyahoga County ( or ) is a large urban County (United States), county located in the Northeast Ohio, northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. It is situated on the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the Canada–United States border, U.S.- ...

, then approaches

Cleveland Hopkins International Airport Cleveland Hopkins International Airport is an international airport in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is the primary airport serving Greater Cleveland and Northeast Ohio, the largest and busiest airport in the state, and the 43rd busiest a ...

, which serves as the primary airport for

Northeast Ohio The region Northeast Ohio, in the US state of Ohio, in its most expansive usage contains six metropolitan areas ( Cleveland–Elyria, Akron, Canton–Massillon, Youngstown–Warren, Mansfield, and Weirton–Steubenville) along with eight m ...

. After traversing

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

and crossing the

Cuyahoga River The Cuyahoga River ( , or ) is a river located in Northeast Ohio that bisects the City of Cleveland and feeds into Lake Erie. As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so mu ...

on the

Valley View Bridge The Valley View Bridge is a trio of steel multi-stringer highway girder bridges that carry Interstate 480 over the Cuyahoga River valley in Valley View and Independence, Ohio. They are high and long. History The bridges opened in 1977 pro ...

, the highway continues east toward the communities of

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

and

Twinsburg Twinsburg is a suburban city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, located about halfway between Akron and Cleveland. The population was 19,248 as of the 2020 census. It is part of the Akron metropolitan area. History In 1817 Ethan Alling, then ...

toward its eastern terminus at I-80 and the Ohio Turnpike in Streetsboro. On its route, I-480 crosses

I-71 Interstate 71 (I-71) is a north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes/Midwestern and Southeastern region of the United States. Its southern terminus is at an interchange with I-64 and I-65 (the Kennedy Interchange) in Louisville, ...

and

I-77 Interstate 77 (I-77) is a north–south Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. It traverses diverse terrain, from the mountainous state of West Virginia to the rolling farmlands of North Carolina and Ohio. It largely supplants the ...

and is concurrent with

I-271 Interstate 271 (I-271) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the suburbs of Cleveland and Akron in the US state of Ohio. The highway is officially designated the Outerbelt East Freeway but is rarely referred to by that name by locals, inste ...

for approximately . In 1998, the governor of Ohio,

George Voinovich George Victor Voinovich (July 15, 1936June 12, 2016) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from Ohio from 1999 to 2011, the 65th governor of Ohio from 1991 to 1998 and the 54th mayor of Cleveland from 1980 to 1989, th ...

, gave I-480 the additional name of the "Senator John Glenn Highway", in honor of the former NASA astronaut and US senator from Ohio for 24 years. Parts of I-480 were to have been

and/or I-80N.

Route description

The freeway runs concurrently with

for . I-271 and I-480 were the only two auxiliary Interstates in the nation that ran concurrently with each other for any distance until 2022, when a concurrency between I-587 and I-795 in North Carolina was established with the designation of I-587. This is because I-80 was concurrent with I-271 until 1971, when I-80 was routed back on to the turnpike and replaced by I-480. Due to the convergence of these high traffic roads, congestion is common during peak times. They run concurrently through Bedford Heights,

, and Oakwood in

. Because of that, the

Ohio Department of Transportation The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT; ) is the administrative department of the Ohio state government responsible for developing and maintaining all state and U.S. roadways outside of municipalities and all Interstates except the Ohio T ...

(ODOT) started a $120-million (equivalent to $ in ) widening project in 2016, expanding the concurrency to five lanes in each direction. The project is expected to be completed in late 2020. I-271 I-480

The

, which is high and spans , carries I-480 across the

valley. It is the busiest crossing in the state of Ohio with approximately 180,000 cars per day. An expansion and deck replacement project began in 2018, which includes building a third bridge between the existing bridges to allow for deck replacement of the existing bridges with minimal disruption of traffic. When completed, scheduled for 2024, plans call for the bridges to carry six lanes of traffic in each direction.

History

I-480 was conceived as a means of giving motorists a faster way of crossing Cleveland's southern borders and suburbs. The first segment of the route was partially concurrent with

and constructed simultaneously with that highway in 1965. Planning for the route was largely finished by 1968, and construction began on its first mile () began at the highway's interchange with

in 1970. The segment from

west to Maple Heights opened in November 1976. The segment from Maple Heights west to

Brooklyn Heights Brooklyn Heights is a residential neighborhood within the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Old Fulton Street near the Brooklyn Bridge on the north, Cadman Plaza West on the east, Atlantic Avenue on the south, an ...

opened in January 1978. Construction from west to east began as political controversies and engineering work were resolved on the highway's middle section. I-480 between

and I-71 was completed in 1983. The of the route north and northeast of

proved the most difficult to plan due to existing high levels of traffic on Brookpark Road and the expansion requirements of the airport. The final $115-million (equivalent to $ in ), segment linking the east and west ends of I-480 was finished in August 1987.

Exit list

Interstate 480N

Interstate 480N (I-480N) is officially designated as the spur freeway connecting I-480 to I-271 and US Route 422 (US 422) by ODOT. It is currently signed as I-480 on interchange signs and is signed as I-480N on milemarkers. Interstate_480N_Ohio

;Major intersections

References

External links

Interstate 480 (Ohio) Endpoint Photos
{{3di, 80 80-4 Ohio 80-4 4 Ohio Cleveland area expressways Transportation in Lorain County, Ohio Transportation in Cuyahoga County, Ohio Transportation in Summit County, Ohio Transportation in Portage County, Ohio