OH 93 SB/US 22 WB leaving Zanesville. The signals are at Harrison St. and Zanesville Rd., where you'll find the Y Tour as well. The center pier is at an old railroad trestle south of town.


SB on Coryville Rd., the old alignment of OH 93, which at that time was numbered OH 75 south of Zanesville. Obviously, that number disappeared due to I-75, resulting in an extension of the number that ran north from there. This alignment was cut off in 1960 by the new US 52 bypass of Ironton, while the number changed in 1962.


The end of Coryville Rd. is at this neat novelty cave. But wait, it's a stop on a road meet. Something's up here.


Welcome to hell, a.k.a. the Highway 75 Tunnel. The first tunnel was dug through here in 1866 for buggies and then widened to 30' in 1915 for automobile traffic. It was short enough to see through and just long enough to have a storied accident history. If you're wondering why a tunnel needed to be built when the ridge ends right here, well, the ridge (Nixon Hill) doesn't end right here, it was just blown away for the rerouted OH 93. Because traffic had to be maintained on OH 75 during that process, the tunnel has been preserved. Given the crashes, I don't know why Nixon Hill wasn't blown away a lot sooner to daylight the tunnel, except maybe the road on top was still in use.


A large piece of the tunnel header fell but was fortunately kept near its parent. It bears the name Mahlbe for the brothers whose company widened the tunnel in 1915.


From atop the tunnel, I have a clear shot of the new OH 93 and the old OH 75 to the north, with downtown Ironton and the old Ironton-Russell Bridge to the south. OH 75 used to end at what's now Business US 52 in town by following Park St. in the 2nd photo.


I've found the other end of the tunnel, but to explore it, I need to climb down from here and around to the US 52 WB entrance ramp. The WB ramps are looped so that the exit is after the entrance, favoring Ironton traffic at the cost of a needless expressway weave.


Tapered one-way signs afflict the southeastern reaches of US 52 in OH, and have spread to the ramp mouth where the NB right turn meets the SB left.


Here's the south end of the tunnel, the former Ironton-facing approach, still visible atop the WB entrance ramp. The homemade OH 75 shield is a pleasing touch that shows the tunnel's history remains meaningful to locals.

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