Fort Washington Way
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Fort Washington Way is an approximately section of
freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
in downtown
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
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 ...
, United States. The eight-lane divided highway is a
concurrent Concurrent means happening at the same time. Concurrency, concurrent, or concurrence may refer to: Law * Concurrence, in jurisprudence, the need to prove both ''actus reus'' and ''mens rea'' * Concurring opinion (also called a "concurrence"), a ...
section of Interstate 71 (I-71) and
U.S. Route 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlanti ...
(US 50) that runs from west to east from an interchange with I-75 at the
Brent Spence Bridge The Brent Spence Bridge is a double decker, cantilevered truss bridge that carries Interstates 71 and 75 across the Ohio River between Covington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. The top deck carries Kentucky-bound traffic while the bottom de ...
to the
Lytle Tunnel The Lytle Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel that carries Interstate 71 (I-71) under the historic Lytle Park in Cincinnati, in the U.S. state of Ohio, connecting Fort Washington Way to the Northeast Expressway. It is a six-lane tunnel with thr ...
and
Columbia Parkway Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
. Fort Washington Way is named after Fort Washington, a fort that preceded the establishment of Cincinnati. One of the city's first freeways, it was conceived in 1946 as the Third Street Distributor in conjunction with a major
urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
project along the riverfront. It opened in 1961 after one of the most expensive road construction projects per mile in the United States. Fort Washington Way's complex system of ramps made it the most crash-prone mile of urban freeway in Ohio. During the late 1990s, it was rebuilt with a simpler, more compact configuration, improving traffic safety and facilitating the riverfront's redevelopment as The Banks.


Route description

Fort Washington Way begins at a complex interchange with I-75 at the northern end of the
Brent Spence Bridge The Brent Spence Bridge is a double decker, cantilevered truss bridge that carries Interstates 71 and 75 across the Ohio River between Covington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. The top deck carries Kentucky-bound traffic while the bottom de ...
. It ends a short distance later at a fork in the road. I-71 curves eight degrees to the north before entering the
Lytle Tunnel The Lytle Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel that carries Interstate 71 (I-71) under the historic Lytle Park in Cincinnati, in the U.S. state of Ohio, connecting Fort Washington Way to the Northeast Expressway. It is a six-lane tunnel with thr ...
, while US 50 continues east on
Columbia Parkway Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
via the Third Street Viaduct. The entire highway lies in a , trench parallel to Second Street and Pete Rose Way to the south and Third Street to the north. Together, these roadways form a collector-distributor system. There are five overpasses along Fort Washington Way; the overpasses at either end are cable-stayed. The
Riverfront Transit Center The Riverfront Transit Center is a multi-modal transportation center currently used as a local bus and commuter bus hub for TANK and SORTA, in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio near Great American Ballpark and The Banks project. It runs alongside t ...
runs parallel to Fort Washington Way, in a tunnel beneath Second Street. The Cincinnati Bell Connector streetcar system crosses over Fort Washington Way twice, on Walnut and Main streets, with a stop on Second Street above the Riverfront Transit Center. A flood wall and
pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as well drilling, drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastru ...
protect Fort Washington Way from
Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
floodwaters. The pump is activated when the river reaches , as measured from the Roebling Suspension Bridge. The Fort Washington Way corridor also includes a
combined sewer A combined sewer is a type of gravity sewer with a system of pipes, tunnels, pump stations etc. to transport sewage and urban runoff together to a sewage treatment plant or disposal site. This means that during rain events, the sewage gets dilute ...
overflow mitigation system and fiber optic backbone.


History


Background and planning

The eastern terminus of present-day Fort Washington Way was originally the site of an army fortress, Fort Washington, from 1789 to 1803. During much of the 19th century, the area south of Third Street was a working-class neighborhood, the Central Bottoms, which had 10,000 residents. From the 1870s to the mid-20th century, the Bottoms gave way to warehouses as residents moved to the West End. By 1940, the Bottoms had a population of only 1,700 and was mostly vacant. The Bottoms was inundated during the Ohio River flood of 1937. After the flood, the
United States Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...
called for a flood wall to protect the downtown area but not the Bottoms. Areas below Third Street were declared too costly to protect from flooding. Meanwhile, the city's City Planning Commission was considering the issues of increasing automobile congestion on
downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
city streets and the deterioration of the central riverfront. In 1946 and 1947, the commission issued reports proposing a "Third Street Expressway Distributor" linking the city's various entry points: In 1948, City Council adopted the '' Cincinnati Metropolitan Master Plan'', which incorporated the Third Street Distributor along with long-range plans to completely redevelop the Bottoms as a
mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...
, including a new baseball stadium to replace
Crosley Field Crosley Field was a Major League Baseball park in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was the home field of the National League's Cincinnati Reds from 1912 through June 24, 1970, and the original Cincinnati Bengals football team, members of the second (1937) an ...
. The distributor would double as a flood wall for the central business district. Planners estimated that, together, the three freeways "would divert between 60 and 70 per cent of the 88,000 vehicles which enter Cincinnati's business district aily. With bridge traffic across the Ohio River making up only 14% of total traffic entering and exiting Cincinnati's core area, the commission found "no valid reason for aligning the two Expressways directly with bridges across the Ohio River". Instead, the Mill Creek and Northeast expressways would both connect to the
John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge (formerly the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge) is a suspension bridge that spans the Ohio River between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky. When opened on December 1, 1866, it was the longest suspension ...
via elevated ramps. The distributor would direct downtown-bound traffic directly to parking lots and garages. It was projected to handle the bulk of downtown traffic in 1970. (In the 1960s, a significant increase in interstate traffic would necessitate the construction of the
Brent Spence Bridge The Brent Spence Bridge is a double decker, cantilevered truss bridge that carries Interstates 71 and 75 across the Ohio River between Covington, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. The top deck carries Kentucky-bound traffic while the bottom de ...
as a direct connection to the freeways.) Pioneering urban planner Ladislas Segoe, who served as a general consultant for the city's Master Planning Division, had urged the city to connect the Mill Creek and Northeast freeways with a Liberty Street distributor in Over-the-Rhine, instead of building a "great wall" between the riverfront and the central business district. However, downtown department store owners successfully pushed for the riverfront highway, threatening to leave for the suburbs otherwise. The Citizens' Development Committee, headed by Cincinnati Gas & Electric executive Reed Hartman, championed a $16 million bond drive to fund the riverfront redevelopment project, which included the Third Street Distributor.


Construction

On August 8, 1955, construction began on the first of many "piers" in the distributor system, a connector between the Louisville & Nashville Bridge and the Third Street Viaduct. Work began in earnest with the passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, which allocated federal funds to the $21 million project. In January 1958, demolition began on Third Street buildings, including St. Philomena's Church, to make way for the distributor. The ''
Cincinnati Times-Star ''The Cincinnati Times-Star'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, from 1880 to 1958. The Northern Kentucky edition was known as ''The Kentucky Times-Star'', and a Sunday edition was known as ''The Sunday Times-St ...
'' editorial board proposed that the new highway be named "Fort Washington Freeway". The fort's
gunpowder magazine A gunpowder magazine is a magazine (building) designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications requ ...
had been rediscovered a few years earlier on land near the highway's path. Supporters of the Fort Washington name included the '' Cincinnati Enquirer'' editorial board and Mrs. William T. Buckner, a representative of the
Daughters of the American Revolution The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) is a lineage-based membership service organization for women who are directly descended from a person involved in the United States' efforts towards independence. A non-profit group, they promote ...
and
Daughters of 1812 The National Society of United States Daughters of 1812 (USD 1812), commonly known as the United States Daughters of 1812, is a patriotic society headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1892 at Cleveland, Ohio, by Flora Darlin ...
whose great-grandfather
William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States. Harrison died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841, and had the shortest pres ...
once served at the fort. On February 20, 1958, the state's Anthony Wayne Parkway Board threw its support behind this name and also proposed naming the Mill Creek and Northeast expressways after General Anthony Wayne and
George Rogers Clark George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American surveyor, soldier, and militia officer from Virginia who became the highest-ranking American patriot military officer on the northwestern frontier during the Ame ...
, respectively. Other suggestions for the distributor included "Queen City Freeway" (after the city's nickname, "Queen City of the West"), "Cincinnati Gateway", "Queen's Freeway", and "Cincinnatus Parkway" (after
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus ( – ) was a Roman patrician, statesman, and military leader of the early Roman Republic who became a legendary figure of Roman virtue—particularly civic virtue—by the time of the late Republic. Cincinnatus was ...
, the city's namesake). The city chose "Fort Washington Way" that March. On June 29, 1961, Fort Washington Way opened to traffic. At approximately $10 million per mile, Fort Washington Way, along with the Third Street Viaduct that connected it to Columbia Parkway, was one of the most expensive road construction projects in the United States. ''Modern Highways'' magazine called it "fantastically complex". Though it had only two through lanes in either direction, Fort Washington Way measured wide, enough for 11 lanes, cutting off the central business district from the riverfront. During the Riverfront Stadium project from 1968 to 1970, numerous left-hand entrance and exit ramps were added in close proximity. By the time the
Lytle Tunnel The Lytle Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel that carries Interstate 71 (I-71) under the historic Lytle Park in Cincinnati, in the U.S. state of Ohio, connecting Fort Washington Way to the Northeast Expressway. It is a six-lane tunnel with thr ...
opened in 1970, Fort Washington Way's 23 entrance and exit ramps were the densest set of ramps in the country. Fort Washington Way was one of five local landmarks featured in the title sequence of the CBS sitcom ''
WKRP in Cincinnati ''WKRP in Cincinnati'' is an American sitcom television series about the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio broadcasting, radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson (director), Hugh Wilson ...
''.


Reconstruction

Fort Washington Way was originally designed to accommodate 90,000 vehicles per day of local traffic. By July 1998, however, traffic had risen to 120,000 vehicles per day. The highway was the most crash-prone mile of urban freeway in Ohio, due to high traffic volumes and the system of 14 interwoven entrance and exit ramps, many of them on the left. From July 6, 1998, to August 18, 2000, the Fort Washington Way 2000 project completely rebuilt the highway with a more compact configuration, eliminating most ramps. Second Street (the former Pete Rose Way) was reconfigured, and the
Riverfront Transit Center The Riverfront Transit Center is a multi-modal transportation center currently used as a local bus and commuter bus hub for TANK and SORTA, in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio near Great American Ballpark and The Banks project. It runs alongside t ...
was eventually built beside the freeway trench. Albert Sabin Park at Third and Elm streets was demolished. Together, these changes freed up more than for redevelopment. Within a few years of Fort Washington Way's reconstruction, Hamilton County would use this newly available space to replace Riverfront Stadium with Great American Ball Park and
Paul Brown Stadium Paycor Stadium, previously known as Paul Brown Stadium, is an outdoor football stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is the home venue of the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League and opened on August 19, 2000. Originally named after the B ...
and begin redeveloping the central riverfront as The Banks. At the last minute, Cincinnati city officials decided to drive pilings into the ground that would someday allow the highway's central portion to be covered with a highway deck that would link the riverfront with the central business district for the first time in decades. The Fort Washington Way 2000 project was originally estimated at $96 million but eventually cost $314 million. The project finished on time and under budget. It required 1.5 million hours of labor, more than of steel, and nearly of concrete. The Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments initiated the project's design phase, while the City of Cincinnati led construction efforts. The project was funded by multiple federal, state, and local agencies, including the
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is Kentucky's state-funded agency charged with building and maintaining federal highways and Kentucky state highways, as well as regulating other transportation related issues. The Transportation Cabi ...
. Additional funding came from a bond fund that was used to complete
Ronald Reagan Cross County Highway Ronald Reagan Cross County Highway, formerly and locally known as Cross County Highway, is a west-east freeway in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States. It stretches from southern Colerain Township to Montgomery, connecting many of Cincinnati' ...
.


Future

Pilings driven into the central median of Fort Washington Way would support a four-block-long highway deck, with buildings up to four stories tall on three of the blocks. Hamilton County commissioners have explored using the
Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE), previously called Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD), and Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER), is a supplementary ...
program to pay for a deck over the first block, then tax increment financing to pay for successive blocks using development revenue, culminating in a park on the fourth block. In 2018, covering Fort Washington Way and several blocks of parking lots to the south, totaling , was estimated to cost from $ to $. The highway deck was included in Cincinnati and Hamilton County's 2018 bid to attract
Amazon HQ2 Amazon HQ2 is Amazon's corporate headquarters in Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia and is an expansion of the company's headquarters in Seattle, Washington. HQ2 was announced in September 2017, when Amazon submitted request for proposals to go ...
to The Banks. In 2019, graduate-level students around the world competed to create a comprehensive design and development plan for the highway deck in the
Urban Land Institute The Urban Land Institute, or ULI, is a nonprofit research and education organization with regional offices in Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, and London. ULI advocates progressive development, conducting research, and education in topics such as s ...
's annual Hines Student Competition.


Safety

The speed limit is throughout Fort Washington Way; however, there is a
advisory speed limit An advisory speed limit is a speed recommendation by a governing body, used when it may be non-obvious to the driver that the safe speed is below the legal speed. It is a posting which either approximates the Basic Speed Law or rule (and is s ...
at the eastern end, where I-71 curves sharply to enter the
Lytle Tunnel The Lytle Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel that carries Interstate 71 (I-71) under the historic Lytle Park in Cincinnati, in the U.S. state of Ohio, connecting Fort Washington Way to the Northeast Expressway. It is a six-lane tunnel with thr ...
. In the 20 months after the highway reopened in 2000, Fort Washington Way had 22 truck accidents at this curve, which had been tightened to eight degrees. According to ARTIMIS estimates, the accidents caused over 97 hours of delays, costing about $181,686. In response to the rash of
rollover Rollover or roll over may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Rollover'' (film), a 1981 American political thriller *''Roll Over'', a 1992 album by Hound Dog * "Roll Over", a 2006 song by Zico Chain * "Roll Over", a 1989 song by Steven Wayne ...
s, the sharp turn before the Lytle Tunnel features several special safety measures. In May 2003, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) installed
radar speed sign A radar speed sign is an interactive sign, generally constructed of a series of LEDs, that displays vehicle speed as motorists approach. The purpose of radar speed signs is to slow cars down by making drivers aware when they are driving at speed ...
s to alert drivers to the advisory speed limit. Rumble strips and caution signs have also been installed along the banked turn. Since late 2002, a CB Wizard Alert System has broadcast an advisory in a loop on CB channel 19 (27.185 MHz), the most commonly used commercial trucking frequency: "This is ODOT, southbound 71 traffic be aware of a sharp turn exiting the tunnel one mile ahead. Reduce speed to 40 mph NOW!" The message is heard up to north of the tunnel. A similar message is in place for northbound truckers. ODOT has also considered mounting traffic enforcement cameras to monitor causes of truck rollovers.


Exit list


Pre-1998 exit list


See also

*
Roads in Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...


Notes and references


External links

* {{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030501171825/http://www.fww2000.com/ , date=May 1, 2003 , title=Fort Washington Way 2000 official website
Original Fort Washington Way
an

by Jake Mecklenborg
Fort Washington Way 2000
nbsp;– ''Cincinnati Enquirer'' series
Fort Washington Way 2000 project overview
Roads in Cincinnati Flood control infrastructure in the United States Freeways in the United States Transport infrastructure completed in 1961 Interstate 71 U.S. Route 50 1961 establishments in Ohio