Drivers who cross downtown Cleveland on Interstate 90 should plan for two weekends without the freeway later this month. The Ohio Department of Transportation announced Thursday that I-90 will close in both directions downtown on the weekends of Nov. 13 and Nov. 20, WKYC reported, so crews can demolish two bridges that carry city streets over the highway.
The closure covers the stretch of I-90 between Central Avenue and just east of Carnegie Avenue, according to WKYC’s reporting on the ODOT announcement. Cleveland 19 News (WOIO) also reported the planned eastbound and westbound closures on Thursday, confirming the announcement the same day it was made.
The work targets the East 22nd Street and Cedar Avenue bridges over I-90. Both structures are coming down as part of the I-90 Central Interchange Project, the long-running rebuild of the freeway corridor through the heart of downtown Cleveland. The closures will also affect the ramp from northbound Interstate 77 to eastbound I-90, WKYC reported, which means drivers coming up I-77 from the south will need another route into the eastbound lanes on those weekends.
ODOT has not, in the reporting verified for this story, published exact clock times for when each weekend closure begins and ends, and this story does not guess at them. Drivers should check ODOT’s Cleveland traffic page and the OHGO app before traveling on either weekend for the posted detours and the precise hours, because a full freeway closure downtown pushes traffic onto city streets and the other crossings of the Cuyahoga River valley.
The Central Interchange Project is a $328 million undertaking covering I-90 between East 9th Street and Carnegie Avenue, according to project summaries of ODOT information published by Cleveland Magazine and World Construction Network. It includes complete pavement replacement and the replacement of multiple bridges on and over the freeway, including the East 22nd Street and Carnegie Avenue structures.
Much of what is being replaced dates to the 1960s, when the Innerbelt was built through downtown. Project coverage summarized by NEOTrans from ODOT information says the work broke ground on April 15, 2026, and is estimated to reach completion in the summer of 2032 — a six-year program that will remake how the region’s main east-west freeway moves through the city.
The November demolitions were already on the project’s 2026 work program. Cleveland Magazine’s project coverage noted that this year’s schedule included removing the Cedar Avenue bridge over I-90 and using full weekend closures of the freeway to do bridge demolition work; Thursday’s announcement is what sets the specific dates — the weekends of Nov. 13 and Nov. 20 — for drivers to plan around.
For downtown employers, venues and anyone with weekend plans in the city, the practical effect is straightforward: the main freeway across downtown will simply not be an option on those two weekends. Trips that normally take minutes on I-90 will route onto surface streets, and drivers coming from the suburbs should expect heavier-than-usual traffic on alternate crossings and build in extra time.
The closures land in a busy stretch for downtown Cleveland coverage. NewsForce247 reported earlier today on Mac’s Backs opening its new Coventry home on the city’s east side, and on Cuyahoga County’s plan to certify its Nov. 3 election results on Nov. 24 — the same week the second I-90 closure weekend wraps up.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: ODOT announced Thursday, as reported by WKYC and confirmed by Cleveland 19 News, that I-90 closes in both directions between Central Avenue and just east of Carnegie Avenue on the weekends of Nov. 13 and Nov. 20 for demolition of the East 22nd Street and Cedar Avenue bridges, and that the northbound I-77 ramp to eastbound I-90 is also affected. What we’re still waiting on: the exact start and end times for each weekend closure and ODOT’s official signed detour routes, neither of which was established in the verified reporting for this story.
What happens next is the first closure weekend, Nov. 13, followed by the second on Nov. 20. Before either weekend, ODOT’s Cleveland traffic page and the OHGO app are the places to confirm detours and timing, and drivers who can shift downtown trips off those weekends will avoid the worst of it.
Photo: Cards84664, CC BY-SA