Is Ohio Trying to Sneak a Highway Through Cincinnati?

This promotional video from the lobbyists at the "National I-73/I-74/I-75 Association" pitches the idea of a highway running through the Cincinnati area all the way to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The extension of Interstate 74 through Cincinnati is one of those zombie highway plans that never quite seem to die. In the 1990s, the road was envisioned as a toll highway, connecting to Interstate 73 and linking the Midwest to the Carolinas. And West Virginia has been taking steps to prepare the necessary roads, piece by piece.

In Ohio, talk of an interstate highway though Cincinnati, as the project would require, has been mostly quiet since the 1990s. Instead, the state of Ohio has been focusing on a close approximation it calls the Eastern Corridor, a project that is moving forward despite fierce opposition from residents of the affected areas.

Well, Jake Mecklenborg of Urban Cincy has been doing some digging. He says there's good reason to believe ODOT might be designing the Eastern Corridor -- which officials have promised "will feel like a boulevard or parkway" -- for easy conversion to a limited-access expressway:

Elsewhere on the Network today: Systemic Failure says Fort Lee, New Jersey, is guilty of a pretty heinous traffic sin of its own. Seattle Transit Blog reports that the state of Washington's Department of Transportation can't seem to say no to highway megaprojects, even as its budget situation becomes dire. And City Block explores the particulars of integrating retail space into transit stations.