Interstate 76 in Ohio partially coincident with Ohio Turnpike
Interstate 76 (I-76) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. The highway runs approximately 435 miles (700 km) from an interchange with I-71 west of Akron, Ohio, east to I-295 in Bellmawr, New Jersey. This route is not contiguous with I-76 in Colorado and Nebraska.
Just west of Youngstown, I-76 joins the Ohio Turnpike and heads around the south side of Youngstown. In Pennsylvania, I-76 runs across most of the state on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, passing near Pittsburgh and Harrisburg before leaving the turnpike at Valley Forge. At Valley Forge, I-76 becomes the Schuylkill Expressway and eventually enters Philadelphia and then crosses the Walt Whitman Bridge into New Jersey. After only about three miles (4.8 km) in New Jersey, I-76 reaches its eastern terminus, though the freeway continues as Route 42 and the Atlantic City Expressway to Atlantic City.Route description
Ohio
I-76 begins at exit 209 of I-71 in Westfield Township, approximately six miles (9.7 km) east of Lodi, Ohio; US Route 224 (US 224) continues west from the end of I-76. The interchange was previously a double trumpet but was reconstructed in 2010. Officially, I-76 begins at the beginning of the ramp from I-71 north; it merges with US 224 at mile 0.61. After passing through rural Medina County, I-76 enters Summit County and soon crosses State Route 21 (SR 21, old US 21), once the main north–south route through the area until I-77 replaced it, at a cloverleaf interchange. I-76 then passes through Norton and Barberton, then enters Akron; this section of road was built as US 224.
Soon after entering Akron, I-76 turns north onto the short Kenmore Expressway. US 224 leaves I-76 there and continues east with I-277 toward I-77. Shortly after heading north from the I-277 interchange, I-76 meets I-77 and again turns east, joining southbound I-77 south of downtown Akron on the West Expressway. A partial interchange provides access to SR 59, the Innerbelt, and then I-76 crosses through the Central Interchange, where I-77 goes south (on the South Expressway) and SR 8 begins to the north (on the North Expressway); I-76 switches from the West Expressway to the East Expressway.Leaving the Akron area, I-76 again heads through rural areas, crossing Portage County and entering Mahoning County. West of Youngstown, the freeway intersects the Ohio Turnpike and I-80 via a double trumpet interchange. I-76 joins the Ohio Turnpike heading southeast toward Pittsburgh while I-80 exits the Turnpike and continues east toward Youngstown. The Ohio Turnpike carries I-76 until the Pennsylvania border, where I-76 joins the Pennsylvania Turnpike.History
The majority of I-76 along the Pennsylvania Turnpike includes the first long-distance rural freeway in the US; the Ohio Turnpike and Schuylkill Expressway are also pre-Interstate freeways. By 1955, the section of that route from west of Youngstown to Center City Philadelphia, was included in the planned Interstate Highway System, as was present I-76 from west of Youngstown to Akron. (Some early plans called for a new freeway along SR 14 to the Pennsylvania state line; it is unclear when the proposed route was shifted to the turnpikes.)
In 1957, the route from Cleveland east to Harrisburg, running roughly along the SR 14 corridor in Ohio and the turnpike in Pennsylvania, was labeled I-80, and the rest of the route from Harrisburg to Philadelphia was assigned I-80S. (I-80N would have run from Harrisburg to New York City.) I-78 was assigned to a route from Norwalk, paralleling SR 18 through Akron to Youngstown and turning south there to end at the planned I-80.On April 16, 1963, due in part to the extension of I-79 south from Greater Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania proposed a partial renumbering. A new number, tentatively designated I-76, would run from Downtown Pittsburgh east on what was then I-70 (I-70S bypassed Pittsburgh to the south on what is now I-70) to the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Monroeville, and then east along the remainder of I-80S to I-295. I-80S would remain on the section of turnpikes from west of Youngstown to Monroeville. This was approved February 26, 1964, and included the renumbering of all I-X80 spurs to I-X76.On June 29, 1970, a renumbering was approved in the Pittsburgh area, with the main effect being rerouting I-79 to bypass Pittsburgh to the west on the former I-279. I-279 was moved to the former I-79 north of downtown, and the former I-79 from downtown southwest to new I-79 became a western extension of I-76. (It was then that I-876 was designated for former I-479.) A realignment and extension of I-76 into Ohio, taking over the rest of I-80S to I-71 east of Lodi, was approved January 11, 1972. The former I-76 from Monroeville west into Downtown Pittsburgh became I-376, and I-279 was extended southwest from downtown along former I-76 to I-79. (I-876 was renumbered to I-579 then.) Signs in Ohio were changed September 1, 1972; the old I-80S signs remained for about a year.
On August 29, 1972, a swap of I-76 and I-676 in Philadelphia and Camden was approved. I-76 had been routed along the Vine Street Expressway and Ben Franklin Bridge (now I-676) through Center City, while I-676 used the Schuylkill Expressway and Walt Whitman Bridge to bypass downtown to the south. The switch was made because of delays in building the Vine Street Expressway, better interchange geometry at the splits, and that the Ben Franklin Bridge ends in city streets, rather than in expressway grade.
The renumbering of a Philadelphia Interstate to I-76 in the years leading up to the Bicentennial Celebration of the 1776 signing in Philadelphia of the Declaration of Independence gives rise to the question of the highway number being an intentional tribute to the Spirit of 1776. US Department of Transportation (USDOT) research into federal documentation of the I-76 renumbering found no evidence of this being intentional.
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