Ohio State Route 2

State Route 2 (SR 2), formerly known as Inter-county Highway 2 until 1921 and State Highway 2 in 1922, is an east–west highway crossing most of northern Ohio and the fourth longest state route. Its western terminus is at the Indiana state line near Hicksville where the route becomes Indiana State Road 37 which continues to Fort Wayne, Indiana. The eastern terminus of the route is in Painesville Township in Lake County at U.S. Route 20 (US20).

Route description

It passes through Bryan, Wauseon (where it briefly becomes a couplet), and enters greater Toledo west of its interchange with the Ohio Turnpike. It continues east from greater Toledo and soon parallels Lake Erie, becoming a freeway near Port Clinton. From Oregon to Sandusky SR 2 is part of 293 miles (472km) of the highway designated the "Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail". and on September 22, 2005, was designated a National Scenic Byway. From Toledo to Sandusky the highway is also part of and designated the Lake Erie Circle Tour that is also part of the 6,500-mile (10,500km) "Great Lakes Circle Tour". It then passes Sandusky, where it meets U.S. Route 250 (US250) and US6, and separates from the lakeshore as a freeway, and traverses rural Erie County before entering Lorain County. Near Elyria, it joins Interstate 90 (I-90), whose route it shares to Rocky River, where it follows SR254 along Detroit Road into Lakewood. Here it again joins US6, as well as US20 on Clifton Boulevard. It then becomes part of the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway in Cleveland, joining I-90 again near Burke Lakefront Airport. These two highways split near Euclid, and SR2 continues along the Lakeland Freeway to Painesville, feeding into US20 eastbound. SR2 serves as an access route to lakeshore attractions on Lake Erie from Toledo and Cleveland and as an alternative to the Ohio Turnpike.

The stretch of SR2 from Toledo to Sandusky passes several attractions. The Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge is just east of SR19 in Carroll Township. It sits on 733 acres (297ha) along with the Davis–Besse Nuclear Power Station.

While Ohio state-numbered routes within cities are usually maintained by those cities (see Numbered highways in Ohio), SR2 within the cities in the section in Lake County is maintained by the county.

SR2 is the lowest numbered state route in Ohio. The SR1 designation was removed in 1965.

Cleveland Memorial Shoreway

The Cleveland Memorial Shoreway, often shortened to "the Shoreway", is a limited-access freeway in Cleveland and Bratenahl. It closely follows the shore of Lake Erie and connects the east and west sides of Cleveland via the Main Avenue Bridge over the Cuyahoga River. The entire length of the Shoreway is part of SR2 and the Lake Erie Circle Tour; the Shoreway also carries parts of I-90 and SR283 on its eastern side and parts of US6 and US20 on its western side. The Cleveland neighborhood of Detroit-Shoreway is named after the two roads that form the northern border, the Shoreway and Detroit Avenue.

The Shoreway was originally constructed in 1936 under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and was extended in both directions during the 1930s and 1940s, finally completed and widened in 1953. Later in the 1950s, it was connected with additional freeways. It was named in honor of the city's war veterans during World War II. Between 2014 and 2018, the West Shoreway, the portion of the Shoreway from the Cuyahoga River westward, was reconstructed in order to increase ease of access to Lake Erie; the project included a speed limit reduction and various other feature modifications, though not as many as originally planned. Since the reconstruction, this section is also called Edgewater Parkway.

Lakeland Freeway

The Lakeland Freeway links Cleveland and Cuyahoga County to the suburban areas of Lake County. It begins at the east end of the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway and passes through the municipalities of Euclid, where I-90 diverges from SR2; Wickliffe; Willowick; Willoughby; Eastlake; Mentor; Painesville; and Painesville Township. The freeway was extensively rebuilt in Lake County west of SR44 between 2006 and 2012, which included the extension of one lane in each direction between SR640 and SR44. The Lake County section of freeway was authorized by Lake County Commissioners in 1957, 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, roughly as planned in 1944; because of that, the "Shoreway" name is often applied to the Lakeland Freeway from its west end to the I-90/SR 2 interchange.

Honorary names

• The section of SR2 that runs through Erie County is called the "Jackie Mayer Miss America Highway" and is named for Jackie Mayer, a former Miss America who was raised in Sandusky.
• The Cleveland Memorial Shoreway West is named the "Governor Richard F. Celeste Highway" for former governor Dick Celeste.
• The section of SR2 that runs through Willoughby is named "Brian Montgomery Memorial Highway" in honor of a Marine lance corporal who was killed in the Iraq War in August 2005.

History

Established in 1912 as Intercounty Highway 2, the route initially connected Cleveland to the Pennsylvania state line.

By 1923, it extended westward, aligning with what is now US6 from the Indiana border to Bryan, and following current SR51 and US20 from Toledo to Pennsylvania.

Between 1926 and 1927, SR2 was rerouted from Toledo to Cleveland, utilizing the former SR23 alignment to Port Clinton, an unnumbered stretch to two miles (3.2km) west of Sandusky, and the previous SR12 into Cleveland. Concurrently, the segment from Cleveland to Pennsylvania was designated as US20.

In 1931, the route extended east to Willoughby via St. Clair Avenue. However, by 1932, its western terminus was shortened to Bryan, with the segment from Bryan to the Indiana state line reclassified as US6.

In 1936, the route was extended to the Indiana state line via the former SR108 alignment from Hicksville to Bryan, and the former SR18 alignment from the Indiana state line to Hicksville, with which it was dually certified along this route until 1940.

In 1939 SR18 alignment was removed from SR2 alignment west of Hicksville. Additionally, the route extended east to Lost Nation Road in Willoughby. Two years later, in 1941 SR2 from West 6th to East 9th moved from Lakeside Avenue to the Lakefront Highway, later called the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway. Lakeside certified as SR2 temporarily.

In 1962 the route was extended east to SR283 in Painesville; Euclid-to-Painesville alignment upgraded to freeway.

In 1967 the portion of the route from nine miles (14km) west of Sandusky to four miles (6.4km) west of Sandusky was upgraded to freeway, and rerouted on the bypass around Sandusky on former US6 alignment. Additionally, the route was extended to its current eastern terminus at US20 in Painesville Township. A year later in 1968, the portion of the route from SR163 to nine miles (14km) west of Sandusky upgraded to freeway.

In 1970 the portion of the route from two miles (3.2km) west of Amherst to SR83 (SR76 at that time) upgraded to freeway; from 4 miles (6.4km) east of Amherst to SR83 dually certified with I-90.

From 1973 to 1975, SR2Alt. was deleted as discontinuous sections of SR2 are moved from US6 to I-90.

In 1976, the portion of the route from Ceylon to two miles (3.2km) west of Amherst upgraded to freeway. And in 1977, the portion from SR83 to Rocky River was upgraded to freeway and dually certified with I-90.

On August 30, 1990, the portion from Huron to Ceylon was upgraded to freeway.

Future

As of 2025[update] a project is underway to convert the East Shoreway west of I-90 into an at-grade boulevard, including relocating the east landing of the Main Avenue Bridge southward to a T-intersection at West Third Street. The project is related to North Coast Harbor redevelopment.

Cultural references

In the 2014 film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway is used to depict a freeway in Washington, D.C.

Gallery

• Lakeland Freeway in Mentor
• Wide variant of State Route 2 signage at US 6 in Bryan
• SR 2 in Bryan
• SR 2 in Farmer
• US 20A / SR 2 in Delta
• US 20A / SR 2 along the North Star BlueScope Steel mill located southwest of Delta
• US 127 / SR 2 / SR 15 in Bryan
• Davis–Besse Nuclear Power Station viewed from Ohio State Route 2
• Cleveland Memorial Shoreway in 2013
• Cleveland Memorial Shoreway in 1973
• Abandoned stretch of SR 2[citation needed] in Gordon Park
• Edgewater Park overpass in Cleveland
• West Shoreway in 2022
• East Shoreway from Huntington Bank Field

Major intersections

Auxiliary routes

SR 2 Temporary

State Route 2 temporary was a designation that ran from West 6th to East 9th along Lakeside Avenue in downtown Cleveland. The designation was added when the final alignments of SR 2 were moved to the then new Lakeside Highway, later referred to as the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway. The route's eastern terminus was moved to Public Square via Ontario St. in 1957.

SR 2C

State Route 2C is an unsigned connecting road that runs from State Route 163 to State Route 2 and State Route 53 near Port Clinton in Ottawa County, Ohio. State Route 2C was constructed as an access road for the SR 2–SR 163 interchange.

External links

• Media related toOhio State Route 2at Wikimedia Commons