The Ohio Department of Transportation is set to kick off two multi-year highway projects in 2026 that will remake downtown Cleveland's central interchange. The work zeroes in on the I-90 / I-77 core and a series of bridge replacements near East 9th Street, East 22nd Street and Carnegie Avenue, and officials are already cautioning drivers to expect years of lane reductions, detours and ramp changes through the middle of the city.
In a March 2 post, Ohio Department of Transportation District 12 (Cleveland) listed the I-90 Central Interchange project and an I-77 bridge deck replacement among the major efforts slated to start in 2026, with estimated completion years of 2032 and 2028, respectively, according to Ohio Department of Transportation District 12 (Cleveland). The agency also directed drivers to county traffic advisories and weekly construction alerts so they can plan around upcoming closures.
What's Being Rebuilt And When
The headline job is the I-90 Central Interchange project, which will reconstruct I-90 from East 9th Street to Carnegie Avenue, replace the East 22nd Street and Carnegie Avenue bridges, and reconfigure several surface streets to boost safety and connectivity, according to NOACA. NOACA's planning review labels this work as Group 3 Part A, pegs the cost in the low hundreds of millions, and outlines a roughly six-year construction window that lines up with the target of wrapping up around 2032.
I-77 Deck Work And The Timeline
Nearby, the I-77 bridge deck replacement will remove and replace decks on three bridges that cross U.S. 422 (Woodland Avenue), East 22nd Street and East 14th Street. A project listing shows work scheduled to begin in February 2026, with deck work expected to be finished in 2028. Regional coverage and planning documents place this effort inside the broader Innerbelt modernization push, a multi-phase plan to smooth curves, consolidate ramps and update aging 1950s-era infrastructure, which Fremont and Cleveland reporting have tied to the same early-2026 work window (see ConstructConnect).
Traffic Impacts And How To Stay Informed
Drivers can expect regular impacts around the I-77 / I-90 interchange throughout the life of these projects, including lane closures, ramp shifts and occasional full detours. The Ohio Department of Transportation's weekly traffic advisory lists current detours and lane restrictions, and commuters are urged to check the latest updates before heading out, per Ohio Department of Transportation.
What This Means For Downtown
While the construction period will be lengthy and disruptive, planners say the payoff is intended to be safer, more reliable travel and stronger links between downtown and nearby neighborhoods. Cleveland Magazine and regional plans note that the reconstruction opens the door to reconnecting surface streets and adding multimodal improvements, with those benefits rolling out gradually as the heavy construction phase winds down.
