Project

Economic Impact Of The Proposed Cleveland Innerbelt Project

By Economic Development Research Group and URS for the Ohio Department of Transportation, 2006
 

Cleveland, like many cities across America, faces difficult choices when it comes to rebuilding decaying urban highways. The vital interests of businesses, neighborhoods and institutions are at stake when construction and design alterations force controversial changes to daily lives and livelihoods.

For several years, the Ohio Department of Transportation had been working to develop a comprehensive strategy to rebuild the Cleveland Innerbelt. The Cleveland Innerbelt Plan includes rebuilding portions of Interstate 71, 77, and 90 into Cleveland. Part of that work included commissioning an economic impact analysis of construction and access changes on local business and neighborhoods.

EDR Group identified and studied potential economic impacts of the proposed Innerbelt project on three city neighborhoods: Midtown, the Quadrangle, and St. Clair Superior. The economic impact analysis covered the likely economic impacts of ramp and access changes on businesses, residents and land use within each of these neighborhoods.

EDR Group's methodology emphasized possible economic development impacts to hundreds of businesses in areas affected by altered ramp access in the proposed Innerbelt Plan. A large database of hundreds of firms was assembled in cooperation with local Community Development Corporations. Using extensive survey data from affected businesses, combined with in-depth case-studies of the economic outlook of particular enterprises, EDR Group prepared a detailed analysis of the economic effects of Cleveland Innerbelt access changes.

The report Economic Effects of Cleveland Innerbelt Access Changes was submitted to Ohio DOT in March 2006.