Lakeland Freeway

The Lakeland Freeway (often called "Route 2" in the section that carries solely Ohio State Route 2) is a limited-access freeway in the northeastern suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. It runs with and parallel to Interstate 90, and follows the shore of Lake Erie, linking the suburban areas of Lake County to Cleveland and Cuyahoga County.

Route description

The Lakeland Freeway passes through the municipalities of Cleveland, Euclid, Wickliffe, Willowick, Willoughby, Eastlake, Mentor, Painesville, and Painesville Township. The freeway is eight lanes in the I-90/SR 2 section, then six lanes in the portion of SR 2 eastward from the I-90 split to Vine Street. It narrows to four lanes from Vine Street to its eastern terminus in Painesville Township. The freeway has seen tremendous growth since it opened in the 1960s. In 2003, average daily traffic ranged from about 94,100 at the I-90/SR 2 split to 31,200 east of Painesville.^[2] In 2006, a project began to expand the SR 2 section of the freeway in Lake County and make safety improvements.^[3][4]

History

The Lake County section of freeway was authorized by Lake County Commissioners in 1957,^[3] and constructed and opened to traffic in the early 1960s. It was blended into the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway at the western end in Cuyahoga County; because of that, the "Shoreway" name is often applied to the Lakeland Freeway from its west end to the I-90/SR 2 split.^[5]

Exit list

(Interstate 90 mileage)

References

External links

• "Memorial Shoreway" from the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History - has Lakeland Freeway reference.
• The Unofficial Ohio State Highways Web Site, by John Simpson
• End photos of Ohio 2 from state-ends.com by Dan Garnell