Ohio Roads - OH 59/8

and OH 8/59



W. Bartges St. WB, then turning onto Rhodes Ave. and heading along that WB OH 59 frontage road, all courtesy Doug Kerr (as is the photo atop this page). The penultimate photo's signs are for W. Thornton St. EB.


WB photos taken from the freeway itself, though the Bartges St. sign is of course on the frontage road (Rhodes Ave.). The Exit 21A sign is for I-76/77 WB/NB as OH 59 merges in.


OH 59 EB, the Akron Innerbelt, ending with a photo of the surface street up above. Some signs were recently replaced that I cropped out of the first two photos - click to see what they used to look like, courtesy Doug Kerr. Of course, that's a recent "used to," after the road names were stuck on there.


Finishing the EB Innerbelt. That's traffic in Akron on New Year's Eve 2009, which was a Thursday. I assume people did have to work that day, but they were clearly nowhere to be found on the Innerbelt. That's actually normal. The Innerbelt is a badly aborted freeway project that ended up in just over two miles of high-quality freeway dumping into the back side of downtown Akron. The Innerbelt's only claim to fame is almost being used for the Matrix: Reloaded movie. Almost. I'm not sure the movie producers would have even had to close the road for filming.


WB again, up the Cascade Parking ramp.


Up above the Innerbelt once more, W. Cedar St. EB courtesy Bill Donovan. This sign looks badly aborted. I don't know what it was ever destined for, because there are no button copy scars from its original layout.


W. Exchange St. WB, the one-way complement of Cedar St., again courtesy Bill Donovan. Here's an idea of how the EAST sign on Cedar St. might have looked back when it was a NORTH sign, and then have some button copy shields with two different sizes of reflectors. Amazingly, Ohio paid enough attention to detail to get INTERSTATE inside the shields - I've never seen that in a button copy BGS shield before. Since the signs were erected, OH 59 was changed from a N-S route to an E-W route, and the correction never came.


Up to OH 261, where the ugly shields sign a detour heading EB on 59/261 (only OH 8 should be North). 261 has a hopelessly convoluted routing through Akron that somehow manages to intersect OH 59 three times - the third time being the likely northeast end of this detour.


WB in the same area, up to and just past OH 261. Maybe the ALT and detour route(s?) treat OH 59 as if it were still a north-south highway because OH 8 is listed first.


Continuing EB to the beginning of the multiplex past a sign that appears to date to the 1960's at the latest. After all, even if it's a more modern white sign (as opposed to the traditional green that would now be used), why else would it say "State Route" to the left? So I'm going to place my bet that this is a true relic. Not only is Alt South 8 to the right, but so is South 8. Maybe the Alt route should end now?

All remaining photos courtesy Bill Donovan except one that I'll note.


Northbound through Akron into Cuyahoga Falls; Tallmadge Ave. is OH 261, but it's possible these signs were erected before 261 was rerouted this way (it used to follow Exchange St. and Case Ave.-Eastland Ave. through East Akron). OH 59 is along for the ride with OH 8, but the signs predate the directional changeover I described above.


Cuyahoga Falls Ave. ends here at a half-diamond interchange, becoming Howe Ave. Howe has a full diamond interchange with OH 8 a half-mile to the north. Maybe when the OH 8 freeway signs are replaced, they will better indicate the situation on the surface. And add OH 59 to 8.


Again, that's now OH 59 WB, not SB, and again, Tallmadge Ave. is now OH 261. The fourth photo in this progression, the ¾-mile advance for Tallmadge Ave., is courtesy Doug Kerr, and the last one is on the ramp.

Onto OH 8 alone

To I-76 and I-77/76
To I-77 alone
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