Interstate 71
Just prior to the northern end at the Tremont neighborhood in Cleveland, the northbound lanes of Interstate 71 form a double-deck freeway with the ending SR 176 north. The southbound lanes of both freeways travel at-grade nearby. Photo by Steve Hanudel (06/18/06).
Overview
Interstate 71 constitutes a two-state route from Louisville, Kentucky northeast to Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland in Ohio. I-71 has more miles to the east of Interstate 75 than it does to the west of I-75.
The route of I-71 through northern Kentucky takes the freeway through hilly terrain to the south of the Ohio River. Wide medians and steep hillsides are encountered along the route. One such stretch in Carroll County, south of the Kentucky River, is where a tragic bus crash occurred on May 14, 1988. 27 people died when a wrong way drunk driver collided with a church bus. Signs are posted at the site in each direction.
North of Walton, I-71/75 combine through the south suburbs of Cincinnati through Florence, Erlanger and Fort Mitchell. The pair reach urban Covington and cross the Ohio River along the double decked Brent Spence cantilever Bridge. A replacement of the 1963-opened bridge is planned, however the project remains in development as of 2017 with construction still uncertain as of 2020.
Within the Buckeye State, Interstate 71 turns east between the Ohio Riverfront and Downtown Cincinnati along Fort Washington Way before curving northward through Lytle Tunnel along a winding route to Norwood, Kenwood and Blue Ash. Leaving the Cincinnati suburbs, I-71 turns easterly again across a mixture of agricultural and forest land toward the Columbus metropolitan area.
Entering the suburbs of Columbus at Grove City, Interstate 71 curves northward to parallel the Scioto River ahead of Downtown. The freeway combines with I-70 across the river along the southern periphery of the central business district before resuming a northward course to the east of Downtown. This stretch is slated for improvements due to the weaving traffic patterns of the I-71 mainline. Interstate 71 otherwise continues north through the capital city to exit it near Worthington and Westerville.
Beyond Columbus, Interstate 71 again resumes with rural environs north to Berkshire where it bends northeast for the Cleveland area. Bypassing Mansfield to the east, I-71 traverses a swampy area by Charles Mill Lake ahead of Ashland. Remaining rural, the freeway extends northeast to meet the west end of I-76 near Westfield Center and south end of I-271 outside Medina.
The outer suburbs of Cleveland ensue along the northward drive by Brunswick and Strongsville, with I-71 passing by Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport (CLE) along an increasingly urban route at Brook Park. The final stretch of I-71 takes the route east from the airport area through west Cleveland and northern Brooklyn. The route overtakes the north end of the Jennings Freeway (State Route 176) before ending at I-90 and I-490 and the Innerbelt.
High Priority Corridor
Interstate 71 in Ohio is part of High Priority Corridor 78.
Parallel U.S. Routes
Interstate 71 largely follows U.S. 42 from Louisville to Cleveland. U.S. 25 and U.S. 127 tie into the corridor where I-71 overlaps with I-75, and U.S. 22 parallels I-71 northeast from Cincinnati to Wilmington in Ohio. North from Wilmington, U.S. 62 accompanies the freeway corridor into Downtown Columbus, where U.S. 23 ties in and runs just west of I-71 to Orange.
Major Projects
Kentucky
Within Louisville, Kentucky, major improvements and upgrades were completed at the “Spaghetti Junction” (Kennedy Interchange) between I-64, I-65, and I-71 as part of the larger Ohio River Bridge Project. The new Abraham Lincoln Bridge opened for Interstate 65 across the Ohio River on December 6, 2015. It carries northbound traffic to Jeffersonville, Indiana, previously accommodating both directions of I-65 during reconstruction of the adjacent John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge for southbound traffic. The exchange at the south end of the crossing was redesigned to better connect the three Interstates. Work included extended ramps linking the bridges with Interstate 71 independent of the I-64 mainline. This eliminated weaving traffic patterns and conflict points. Construction commenced on the Downtown Crossing project in July 2013. Work ran through 2016.1
Route Information
North End – Cleveland, OH
South End – Louisville, KY
- Branch Routes – 2
Total Mileage – 345.57
Mileage
Kentucky – 97.42*
Cities – Louisville, Covington
Junctions –
Ohio – 248.15#+
Cities – Cincinnati, Columbus, Mansfield, Cleveland
Junctions –
Source: December 31, 2018 Interstate Route Log and Finders List
* – 19.70 miles on I-75
# – 0.22 miles on I-75
+ – 1.74 miles on I-70
The stretch of Interstate 71 between Norwood and Kenwood, Ohio opened to traffic in 1973. The remaining freeway through Cincinnati was completed by 1975.4
The initial route of Interstate 71 through Columbus took the freeway along the west and north sides of Downtown. The west and north legs of the Columbus Innerbelt also doubled as Interstate 70A officially until AASHTO eliminated the designation on November 10, 1973. I-71 was dropped from this alignment in 1976.4
Interstate 90 proposed along the Parma Freeway leading north from I-80N to the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway. Had this been built, I-71 would have traveled along the Innerbelt Freeway north to the Shoreway.
Ohio
Within Columbus, the Ohio DOT previously proposed a pair of plans to deal with worsening congestion in Downtown. One option was to reroute Interstate 70 south of its current alignment between Exit 98/U.S. 42 and near Milepost 106. In this plan, Interstate 70 would take a new alignment at Exit 98, connecting to Interstate 71 and Ohio 104 south of Downtown and southeast of Cooper Stadium. From there, I-70 would take over State Route 104, and a new connection would be constructed in the vicinity of U.S. 33 (Exit 105) that would link the new I-70 to the existing I-70. In exchange, the existing route of Interstate 70 between Exit 98 and 105A, including the notorious interchange with I-71, would be replaced with a 35 mile per hour boulevard.
Another option, presented in November 2003, proposed separating through traffic on I-70/71 from Downtown-bound traffic. According to the Columbus Dispatch article, “the plan would eliminate highway lane changes by dedicating three lanes of traffic to I-70, two lanes to I-71 and creating collector distributor streets above the highway for motorists getting to and from two sets of Downtown ramps.”
As the study progressed between 2002 and 2004, various options were considered, eliminated or adopted for further consideration. According to the I-70/I-71 South Innerbelt Corridor Study, construction of one of three possible alternatives (involving the location and layout of the collector distributor lanes) would begin in 2008 and end in late 2010. Design of the project began in 2005.2
Renamed the Columbus Crossroads project, work to unravel the weave of I-70 and I-71 was packaged in the larger $1.1 billion umbrella of projects that included rebuilding the junction between I-71 and Interstate 670 to the north. The I-670 project (Phase 1) was completed in November 2013 as were subsections of Phase 2 including the Africentric School retaining wall, the Mound Street Connector and the 18th Street Bridge. The remainder of Phase 2, including work at the east junction between I-70 and 71 (Project 2D – East Interchange), was scheduled to start in 2017, but a lack of funding in 2016 for the $166 million project pushed this back to 2018.3 Construction on Phase 4B (I-70/71 South Innerbelt) may commence in 2023 when funding is expected.
History
The Kentucky portion of Interstate 71 was built between November 1965 and July 1969.4
Interstate 71 in Ohio was established in 1962; the freeway was completed through the state by 1975. The route cosigned with Interstate 75 across the Brent Spence Bridge, a cantilever bridge with a double deck linking Covington, Kentucky with Downtown Cincinnati. The two Interstates partition at the north end of the span, with I-71 joining U.S. 50 east across the trenched freeway of Fort Washington Way.
Fort Washington Way was incorporated in the 1940s Metropolitan Master Plan for Cincinnati and constructed from 1959 to July 1961.6 The below grade freeway was designed with split roadways, a number of left-hand ramps and curved portions along I-71 southbound. The city of Cincinnati outlined Fort Washington Way 2000 to rebuild the freeway and incorporated the project as part of new plan for the Cincinnati Riverfront {Renaissance on the River). The city commissioned the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) to conduct a sub-corridor analysis for Fort Washington Way in 1995. The analysis was underway in January 1996, and a plan for reconstructing Fort Washington Way was produced by OKI the following year. Design contracts were let by September 1997, with the state of Ohio committing $80 million in project funding the next month.7
Reconstruction of Fort Washington Way commenced on July 2, 1998, with the first section of new roadway opened in October 1999. The remainder of the freeway was completed and opened to traffic in August 2000. A formal dedication for the project took place on December 20, 2000, while final paving work for the $313 million project continued until June 2001.8 The resulting work realigned the mainline so that both roadways of I-71 ran side by side and eliminated all left exit ramps. 27 new bridges were constructed along with new ramps from the Brent Spence Bridge east to 2nd Street. Work reconstructed the Third Street Viaduct and 3rd Street along I-71 into a landscaped boulevard. 2nd Street was also built as a landscaped boulevard along the south side of Fort Washington Way.7
Within Columbus, I-71 originally included portions of Interstate 670 north of Downtown and the State Route 315 freeway west of Downtown. That dual configuration between that alignment and the route along I-70 and east of Downtown was removed in 1976.5

Northward in Cleveland, early Interstate proposals extended Interstate 71 along the Innerbelt Freeway to State Route 2 (Cleveland Memorial Shoreway), which was the original route slated for I-90. I-90 was proposed to run north along the unconstructed Parma Freeway from the Northwest Freeway at W 65th Street to Cleveland Memorial Shoreway at the 49th Street interchange. The Shoreway would then take I-90 east by Downtown to the current Dead Man’s Curve where the Innerbelt Freeway and SR 2 meet today. The cancellation of the Parma freeway led to the realignment of I-90 east onto the Innerbelt Freeway over what was previously proposed as an alignment of I-80N and later I-290. This alignment appears on the 1961 Ohio Official Highway map and on the following Cleveland city map from 1966:
North End
– Cleveland, Ohio
West at
North at
West at
East at
North End Throwback
North at
West at
Historic Northern Terminus –
– Cleveland, Ohio
East at
A compact trumpet interchange sandwiches between a railroad line and Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport (BKL). Several warning signs and a 35 MPH speed limit precede the nearly 90 degree turn of I-90 east. A loop ramp also departs here for SR 2 (Cleveland Memorial Shoreway) west toward Lakewood. Photo by Tim Kubat (April 2006).
/ Cleveland Memorial Shoreway – East at
South End
– Louisville, Kentucky
South at
east at
North at
I-65 (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Expressway) navigates through an elevated S-curve from Downtown Louisville to the multi level interchange (Exit 137) with I-64 and I-71 north. 09/07/20
South at
South End Throwback
North at
South at
Sources:
- Kentucky-Indiana Bridges.
http://www.kyinbridges.comproject web site. - “Plan takes I-70 out of Downtown.” Columbus Dispatch, February 7, 2004.
- “Next Phase of Interstate 70/71 Construction Delayed Until 2018.” Columbus Underground, April 12, 2016.
- KentuckyRoads.com – Interstate 71
- Route 71 – The Unofficial Ohio State Highways Web Site (John Simpson).
http://pages.prodigy.net/john.simpson/highways/071.html - “No Respect for Noble Roadway.” Cincinnati Post, The (OH), January 26, 2004.
- “Fort Washington Way 2000.” city of Cincinnati, online slide presentation. Accessed on September 26, 2016.
- “Final paving to begin on Ft. Washington Way.” Cincinnati Post, The (OH), May 17, 2001.
Page updated September 16, 2020.