The Ohio Turnpike, officially the James W. Shocknessy Ohio Turnpike, is a controlled-access

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and ...

in the U.S. state of

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, serving as a primary corridor between

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

and

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. The road runs east–west for in the northern section of the state, with the western end at the

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

–Ohio border near Edon where it meets the

Indiana Toll Road The Indiana Toll Road, officially the Indiana East–West Toll Road, is a controlled-access toll road that runs for east–west across northern Indiana from the Illinois state line to the Ohio state line. It has been advertised as the "Main ...

, and the eastern end at the Ohio–

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

border near Petersburg, where it meets the

Pennsylvania Turnpike The Pennsylvania Turnpike, sometimes shortened to Penna Turnpike or PA Turnpike, is a controlled-access toll road which is operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) in Pennsylvania. It runs for across the southern part of the st ...

. The road is owned and maintained by the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission (OTIC), headquartered in Berea. Built from 1949 to 1955, construction for the roadway was completed a year prior to the Interstate Highway Act. The modern Ohio Turnpike is signed as three Interstate highways: I-76,

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

and

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 states, Mountain West, Great Pla ...

Route description

The entire length of the Ohio Turnpike is , from the western terminus in Northwest Township near Edon, where it meets the

at the Ohio–Indiana border, to the eastern terminus in Springfield Township near Petersburg where it meets the

at the Ohio–Pennsylvania border. Most of the turnpike, between the Indiana border and an interchange with Interstate 76 (I-76) near

Youngstown Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...

, is signed as part of

, while the eastern , between the I-80/I-76 interchange and the Pennsylvania border, is signed as part of I-76. For , between the Indiana border and Elyria,

is cosigned with I-80 as part of the turnpike. The Ohio Turnpike does not pass directly into any major city, but does provide access to the four major metro areas in northern Ohio through connected routes. Two auxiliary Interstate highways, I-271 near

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

and I-475 near Toledo, cross the turnpike, but do not have direct connections. In Northwest Ohio, the turnpike passes through the southern part of the Toledo metropolitan area, with direct access to Toledo through

I-75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Southeastern United States, Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end ...

and I-280. In

Northeast Ohio Northeast Ohio is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that comprises the northeastern counties of the U.S. state of Ohio. Definitions of the region consist of 16 to 23 counties between the southern shore of Lake Erie and the foothills ...

, the turnpike passes through the southern suburbs of

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 census results, the six-county Cleveland, OH ...

and the northern edge of the Akron metro area, with direct access to

via

I-71 Interstate 71 (I-71) is a north–south Interstate Highway in the midwestern and Southeastern United States, southeastern regions of the United States. Its southern terminus is at an interchange with Interstate 64, I-64 and Interstate 65, ...

, I-77,

and

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 Fran ...

Akron Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 census. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had ...

is connected to the turnpike via I-77 and State Route 8 (SR 8) in the north and I-76 on the east. The turnpike is located on the western and southern edges of the

Mahoning Valley The Youngstown–Warren, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, typically known as the Mahoning Valley, is a metropolitan area in Northeast Ohio with Youngstown, Ohio, at its center. According to the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau, ...

, with direct access to

through the remaining portion of I-80 east of the Turnpike, and I-680. In North Jackson, I-80 and I-76 swap rights-of-way at a double trumpet interchange; I-76 continues east as I-80 and I-80 continues southeast as I-76, carrying the turnpike with it. In Petersburg, the concurrent routes cross the state lines into Pennsylvania, automatically becoming the

History

In 1947 a bill was introduced in the

Ohio General Assembly The Ohio General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Ohio. It consists of the 99-member Ohio House of Representatives and the 33-member Ohio Senate. Both houses of the General Assembly meet at the Ohio Statehouse in Colu ...

authorizing a privately financed roadway. Originally consisting of a system of five highways, the turnpike was reduced to one when the other four were made redundant by the

Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, also known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, was enacted on June 29, 1956, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law. With an original authorization of $25 billion (e ...

. Construction for the road cost $326 million and was recorded as the biggest project in state history, with 10,000 employees, more than 2,300 bulldozers, graders, loaders and other machines over a 38-month period. On December 1, 1954, the first stretch (the portion lying east of SR 18) opened near the present-day exit 218 for I-76 and

. Several motorists attended a dedication ceremony, with over 1,000 people joining a caravan, following a snow plow and a patrol cruiser, to become the first to drive the turnpike. The remaining section from exit 218 west to Indiana opened on October 1, 1955. A connecting ramp near the Indiana state line closed on August 16, 1956, the day before the Indiana Toll Road was opened; this ramp had been used to allow traffic access to US 20 to cross into Indiana. As originally built, the turnpike offered 18 access points. The Ohio Turnpike originally had a limit for cars and limit for trucks. The automobile speed limit was increased on September 30, 1963, in concert with other Ohio rural Interstates to . Exit 10 was rebuilt to provide access to Interstate 71 when that road was built across the turnpike. This was completed in November 1966. Exit 15 was rebuilt as part of construction of a new portion of interstate 80. Previously serving the surface alignment of Ohio Route 18, upon the opening of the new ramps, it would instead serve the road. Work on the new interchange was completed in 1972. In 1974, construction was completed on exit 8A, a new interchange with Interstate 90. In 1974,construction began on exit 16A, a new interchange to serve Interstate 680. It was completed in 1975. The turnpike was renamed in honor of the original chairman James W. Shocknessy in 1976. Due to the

National Maximum Speed Law The National Maximum Speed Limit (NMSL) was a provision of the federal government of the United States 1974 Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act that effectively prohibited speed limits higher than . The limit was increased to in 1987. I ...

, a 55 mph speed limit took effect in 1974 for all vehicles. The 55 mph limit remained until 1987 when the Ohio General Assembly adopted the federally permitted 65 mph maximum speed limit, but for automobiles only. In 1991, exit 64 was opened to serve Interstate 75. On December 29, 1992, the unnumbered interchange at SR 49 was opened. There are no ramp tolls at this interchange; the Westgate toll barrier was, at the same time, demolished and replaced by a new Westgate Toll barrier, which is located east of SR 49. In 1994, ticket dispensers were added to interchanges in order to reduce congestion. Many infill interchanges were added in the 1990s. Exit 6A was opened on December 15, 1994, and exit 7A was opened the next year on December 13. This was followed by exit 3B on December 20, 1996, exit 5A on February 6, 1997, and exit 2A on November 18, 1998. In December 2001, construction was completed to reconstruct the interchange with Brecksville Road to add new ramps to Interstate 77. The old toll plaza still exists. The Ohio Turnpike Commission began phasing in distance-based exit numbers in 1998. In September 2002, the sequential numbering system was retired. Governor Taft asked the Ohio Turnpike Commission to work with ODOT and the OSHP to formulate a plan to encourage truck traffic to use the turnpike instead of parallel highways, improving the safety of those other roadways. The three organizations created a plan with three points. The truck speed limit was increased from for consistency with the automobile limits. Enforcement of truck weight and speed limits on parallel highways was increased, and truck toll rates were lowered in a trial. The speed limit increase took effect on September 8, 2004. Exit 7B opened on November 30, 2004. It had first been proposed in 1993. The Ohio Turnpike Commission had been hesitant to deploy an electronic tolling system, citing an apparent lack of commuter travel as well as significant implementation expenses. In December 2006, the commission indicated their intention to move forward with the implementation of an E-ZPass-compatible system as a "customer convenience". The system was activated on October 1, 2009. With this, signs were added to differentiate between E-ZPass lanes and traditional staffed toll lanes, and gates were installed to prevent motorists from evading tolls or causing accidents. They also added support for debit cards and credit cards for customers without E-ZPass, becoming the first publicly owned toll road in the U.S. (second overall) to allow users to pay tolls with a debit or credit card. On December 20, 2010, the Ohio Turnpike Commission voted to increase the speed limit of the Ohio Turnpike to 70 mph. Despite opposition from the Ohio Trucking Association, the increase was approved by the Commission by a vote of 4–1 and went into effect on April 1, 2011. In July 2012, the way tickets were paid for was tweaked to deter truckers from trying to evade them, which had been an issue since the road opened. They also removed staffed toll lanes at the low-capacity interchanges.

Ken Blackwell John Kenneth Blackwell (born February 28, 1948) is an American politician, author, and Conservatism in the United States, conservative activist who served as the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio (1979–1980), the Ohio State Treasurer (1994–1999), and ...

, the defeated candidate in the 2006 Ohio gubernatorial election, had announced a plan for privatizing the turnpike, similar to plans enacted on the

Chicago Skyway Interstate 90 (I-90) in the US state of Illinois runs roughly northwest-to-southeast through the northern part of the state. From the Wisconsin state line at South Beloit, Illinois, South Beloit, it heads south to Rockford, Illinois, Ro ...

and

. In 2010 and 2011, Governor

John Kasich John Richard Kasich Jr. ( ; born May 13, 1952) is an American politician and author who was the 69th governor of Ohio from 2011 to 2019, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001, and a Republican candidate for the pre ...

stated that he would consider a turnpike lease, but only during a prosperous economic period. In August 2011, Kasich stated his intention to create a task force to produce a leasing plan and also considered the option of reassigning the maintenance of the highway to the

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

(ODOT). Ultimately he decided against both, instead proposing to issue more debt under the renamed Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission, with cash tolls raised annually over a ten-year period to compensate. A project to add one lane in each direction from Toledo to Youngstown was started in 1996, using financing from increased tolls. It was originally projected to be finished in 2005, but was not completed until the end of the 2014 construction season. In March 2019, the turnpike commission announced plans to add high-speed E-ZPass lanes to the Westgate and Eastgate toll plazas, allowing E-ZPass users to travel through the toll areas at . Two additional mainline barriers were built at milepost 49 in Swanton Township (on the former site of the Oak Openings and Fallen Timbers service plazas) and at milepost 211 in Newton Falls, and tolls ceased to be collected at exits between each respective new barrier and the nearest existing toll plaza. The construction also features new patron dynamic message signs that provide drivers with dynamic messaging. Part of the largest building program on the toll road since its original opening in 1955, the system was implemented on April 10, 2024. Driver confusion over the system prompted the OTIC to create a 60-day toll grace period on August 13, 2024. The Ohio State Highway Patrol cited in a report that a series of fatal accidents at the Swanton barrier on August 15, 2024 were caused in part by this confusion, and the

National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...

has opened an investigation into them.

Services

The Ohio Turnpike has had service plazas since its inception. Service plazas differ from typical freeway rest areas in that they offer amenities such as 24-hour food and fuel service; motorists do not have to pass through toll booths to re-fuel, use the restroom, or eat. In 1998, the Ohio Turnpike Commission began modernizing the service plazas, first demolishing the original plazas and then reconstructing them from the ground up. Initially, the new plazas were rebranded by signage depicting them as "travel centers", but reverted to the original nomenclature. In addition to modern restrooms, the new plazas offer several

fast food Fast food is a type of Mass production, mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. ''Fast food'' is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheat ...

choices, which vary between the plazas. They also include ATMs, gift shops, travel information counters,

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

internet access, and facilities for

truck drivers A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; an HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...

, including shower facilities, lounge, and laundry areas.

Sunoco Sunoco LP is an American master limited partnership organized under Delaware General Corporation Law, Delaware state law and headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Dating back to 1886, the company has transformed from a vertically integrated energy ...

fuel stations are provided at all service plazas along the Ohio Turnpike. The company signed a new contract to operate all 16 plazas on the Ohio Turnpike beginning in 2012. Facilities for overnight RV campers are provided at the service plazas located at mile markers 20, 76, 139, and 197. Service plazas are located in pairs (one for each side of the turnpike) near mile markers 20, 76, 100, 139, 170, 197, and 237. The Oak Openings and Fallen Timbers service plazas in Lucas County west of Toledo at mile marker 49 were the least utilized, so were closed and demolished; the Swanton toll barrier was later built at the site. A replacement pair of plazas had been planned to be built to the west in Fulton County, but ultimately were not built. Due to the lack of a municipal water/ sewer system, the service plazas located near mile marker 20 in Williams County were demolished in 2006, though they were eventually rebuilt and reopened on June 29, 2011. The plazas at mile 237 - also initially fated to be closed and demolished permanently - reopened in 2013. Since the turnpike opened, the Ohio Turnpike Commission has contracted with the

Ohio State Highway Patrol The Ohio State Highway Patrol is a division of the Ohio Department of Public Safety and has the primary responsibility of traffic enforcement in the U.S. state of Ohio. Divisions Operationally, the Patrol is divided into units whose varying task ...

(OSHP) District 10 to provide law enforcement, as well as assistance to disabled or stranded motorists. The Patrol is the only law enforcement agency with jurisdiction on the turnpike. It monitors Citizen's Band channel 9 for distress calls.

Tolls

Between the Swanton and Newton Falls toll barriers, the turnpike uses a

ticket system A ticket system, also known as a closed toll collection system, is a system used on some toll roads in which a user pays a toll rate based on the distance traveled from their originating entrance to their destination exit. The correct toll is d ...

, where tolls are based upon the distance traveled, as well as the height and axle-count of vehicle driven. , the maximum toll for a 2-axle vehicle to travel the length of the closed toll portion is $13.25 for

E-ZPass E-ZPass Interagency Group (E-ZPass Group trade name and E-ZPass product brand) is an electronic toll collection system used on toll roads, toll bridges, and toll tunnels in the eastern half of the United States. The group itself is composed of ...

holders and $19.50 for non E-ZPass holders. The Westgate and Eastgate barriers charge a flat rate toll, with a toll being collected in both directions at Westgate and in the westbound direction only at Eastgate. There is no toll collection at exits between the Westgate and Swanton barriers, or between the Newton Falls and Eastgate barriers. In April 2008, Governor Ted Strickland and legislative leaders announced a planned stimulus package that would redistribute Turnpike tolls to road projects throughout the state. On May 23, the

Ohio Senate The Ohio Senate is the upper house of the Ohio General Assembly. The State Senate, which meets in the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, first convened in 1803. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered every two years such that half of t ...

Finance Committee voted to pass a new version of the package which would not involve tolls collected.

Exit list

Until 1998, the turnpike numbered exits sequentially, but afterwards started the process of renumbering them by the milepost system. This was done to "alleviate confusion from the irregular sequence of numerical references" due to recently added interchanges as well as to conform to federal standards. The conversion ran from January 1998 to September 2002 with dually posted numbers during that period.

Notes

References

External links