Leaders of northwest Ohio business and planning organizations say state lawmakers now have everything they need to decide the future of a long-debated freeway linking Toledo and Columbus, after the Ohio Department of Transportation delivered its final report on a U.S. 23 and Interstate 71 connector route to the Legislature on Sept. 30.
ODOT’s preferred route would run 18.2 miles, mostly across farmland in Morrow, Marion and Delaware counties — from U.S. 23 north of the village of Waldo, passing north of Ashley, to I-71 just south of State Route 521, with a single interchange north of Ashley. The agency projects about 21,900 vehicles a day would use the connector by 2055.
The payoff for drivers: roughly six minutes saved between I-475 outside Toledo and I-270 around Columbus in free-flowing traffic, and up to 22 minutes during the morning peak. The price tag is steep — about $890 million for the connector itself if construction begins in 2035, plus as much as $236 million in added I-71 lanes, pushing the total toward $1.1 billion. Making it a toll road would cut daily traffic to roughly 8,500 vehicles and cover only about 17.8 percent of the project’s cost.
The study concludes the expected benefits — shorter travel times and safety improvements — outweigh the projected costs, but construction is far from certain. Funding must still be identified before the proposal can advance into formal project development. Support breaks along regional lines: northwestern Ohioans want the faster link to Columbus, while many rural central Ohioans oppose losing farmland. The decision now sits with the Legislature.
