Ohio Gov. John Kasich announced Wednesday that work on the Interstate 480 Valley View Bridge project will start two years earlier than expected.
The major rehabilitation project will now start in 2017 instead of 2019.
According to the Ohio Department of Transportation, the accelerated time frame will save taxpayers nearly $18 million.
Because the bridge carries an estimated 180,000 vehicles across the Cuyahoga River per day, it is impossible for workers to reduce the number of lanes during construction.
To avoid traffic snarls, ODOT will construct a new four-lane structure in the median.
The $281 million project is scheduled to be completed in Fall 2023.
“While most states have been struggling to tackle their highway infrastructure needs, here in Ohio we’ve worked to solve our transportation funding issues and keep up the pace of repairs and improvements,” said Kasich. “As a result, we’ve seen three record-setting years of highway construction, and getting this project done sooner is one more sign of that progress.”
