Interstate 271 (I-271) is an

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 ...

in the suburbs 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. ...

and

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

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 ...

. The highway is officially designated the Outerbelt East Freeway but is rarely referred to by that name by locals, instead simply referring to it as "271".

Route description

AERIAL VIEW OF THE OHIO TURNPIKE RUNNING LEFT TO RIGHT IN THE FOREGROUND

I-271 begins at an interchange with

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, ...

in Medina Township to

I-90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

in Willoughby Hills, with an interchange with

I-480 Interstate 480 may refer to: * Interstate 480 (Nebraska–Iowa), a loop through Omaha, Nebraska into Council Bluffs, Iowa *Interstate 480 (Ohio), a loop through Cleveland, Ohio * Interstate 480 (California), the former Embarcadero Freeway in San Fra ...

(and traveling concurrently with it for a short stretch). The width varies from point to point but is mostly four to six lanes wide south of I-480 and eight to twelve lanes wide north of I-480; there, it is divided into

local–express lanes The local–express lane system is an arrangement of carriageways within a major highway where long distance traffic can use lanes with fewer interchanges compared to local traffic which use 'local' or 'collector' lanes that have access to all ...

. The local–express lanes begin at the southern interchange of U.S. Route 422 (US 422) and continue northward slightly beyond the end of I-271. The northbound express lanes allow access to all exits (excluding Chagrin Boulevard, Harvard Road, and State Route 175 (SR 175), a southbound-only exit). The southbound express lanes bypass all exits except for one combined exit for Chagrin Boulevard (west US 422), Harvard Road, Richmond Road (SR 175), and US 422 (east) interchange. The lanes then become the mainline of I-480N which in turn becomes I-480 westbound. I-271 does not have a direct interchange with

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 ...

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 ...

—one of only a few examples of Interstate Highways that cross but do not intersect. The I-271/I-480 section was the only instance of a concurrency of two three-digit Interstate Highways in the nation until 2022, when a concurrency between I-587 and I-795, and I-840 and

I-785 Interstate 785 (I-785) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US state of North Carolina. , it is completed through eastern Guilford County, through a concurrency with I-840 along the Greensboro Urban Loop. When completed, it will co ...

in North Carolina was established with the designation of I-587, I-785, and I-840. 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.

History

I-290 Interstate 290 may refer to the following Interstate Highways in the United States: *Interstate 290 (Illinois), a highway from Chicago, Illinois, to Rolling Meadows, Illinois * Interstate 290 (Massachusetts), a highway in Massachusetts that connects ...

was to have followed the northern end of I-271. I-271 itself was to have followed

and I-480N westward to I-71. I-271's express lanes were added between 1993 and 1995, with related projects continuing through 1998. For many years, the interchange with SR 8 was only partially complete. The northbound exit and southbound entrance ramps connected with both directions of SR 8, but southbound I-271 could only access SR 8 southbound (though later both directions were accessible), and only northbound SR 8 could access I-271 northbound. To compensate for the missing movements, a half diamond was built at SR 82. The I-271/SR 8 interchange underwent reconstruction in 2008–2009 that turned it into a complete interchange allowing all movements. Similarly, travelers going to and from the north on I-271 had to take surface streets to get to and from the west on I-480 in

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.- ...

. This link is now covered by unsigned I-480N.

I-271 rebuilding and widening program

The need for the I-271 widening project between Miles Road and the Summit County line was identified in March 2002. I-271 will be widened from two to three lanes north and southbound between Miles Road and Columbus Road and from three to five lanes north and southbound between Columbus Road and the I-271/I-480 split near the Summit County line. Construction will last two years and includes replacement of the existing pavement, noise walls, lighting, and signing. A similar project to widen I-271 from two to three lanes will be constructed in Summit County between the Cuyahoga County line and SR 8 and will improve access to the Ohio Turnpike. That project is scheduled to begin in 2014 and be complete in 2016.

Exit list

References

External links

* {{3di, 71 71-2 71-2 Cleveland area expressways Transportation in Medina County, Ohio Transportation in Summit County, Ohio Transportation in Cuyahoga County, Ohio Transportation in Lake County, Ohio 2

271 __NOTOC__ Year 271 ( CCLXXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aurelianus and Bassus (or, less frequently, year 1024 '' ...