Ohio Seriously Considers New Toll Road from Michigan to Columbus

Many Michigan residents who travel south into Ohio quickly encounter that state's Turnpike. The roadway crosses the northern tier of Ohio near the Michigan line - as does the Indiana Toll Road to the west.

The Ohio legislature has passed a law to force the state's Department of Transportation and Turnpike Commission to devise a plan to create an expressway between Toledo and Columbus.

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The alternate route is needed as US 23, the highway that connects those two cites is a two-laned surface road with crosstraffic, stops and not designed to handle heavy travel.

WTVG in Toledo reports:

This new request of ODOT and the Turnpike comes in the state transportation budget. An amendment added Wednesday to the Senate version would force ODOT and the Turnpike to create a feasible connection from US-23 to I-71 near Columbus....

Toll road is an option. That could be a preferred option because it would have built-in dollars for building up that route and its maintenance.

That tolled route could conceivably begin anywhere after US 23 crosses the Michigan state line into Ohio.

The new highway/toll road is just a provision in the proposed state budget at this point. Should the budget pass with this section as written, the transportation agencies in the state would be forced to design that route within 90 days. So beyond simply a feasibility study, the law would demand a plan within that short window of time.

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There must be something about toll roads. Bay City residents are in an uproar over recently tolled bridges there while a proposal floating around Indiana for road funding could place tolls on roads coming into that state from Michigan.