CLEVELAND, Ohio --
This rendering shows how landscaping south of the Inner Belt could make a more attractive entry to the city along Ontario and East Ninth streets.
Terraces on a Tremont hillside and a rock-and-roll wall in Gateway are meant to soften harsh vistas where the
touches down on both sides of the river, officials say.
ODOT consultants showed final landscaping plans to the public Tuesday night, for what the agency calls "community areas" where the second Interstate 90 span will land in Gateway and Tremont.
The second bridge is scheduled to open in late 2016, three years after the first new bridge -- under construction now -- opens this fall.
The twin spans will replace the rusty, aging I-90 viaduct. The Ohio Department of Transportation has worked with landscape architects and community groups to spruce up the limited land near and beneath the bridges.
Also today
About 50 residents gathered at Our Lady of the Angels/St. Joseph Center on West 14th Street in Tremont Tuesday to view the land-use plans, which will be presented soon to city planners for approval.
On the Gateway side, plans call for a "sense of entry" where ramps off I-90 east loop around to East Ninth and Ontario streets, sending drivers into downtown Cleveland.
ODOT wants to plant trees where possible along those streets and flank the underpasses beneath I-90 with Art Deco-style pylons.
The support wall for I-90 east, visible to drivers headed downtown on Ontario and East Ninth, becomes a long mural with the phrase "Cleveland Rocks" and the silhouettes of rock-and-roll fans with outstretched arms.
Artist rendering shows small, proposed park near Abbey Avenue and West 14th Street in Tremont, near the new Inner Belt Bridges.
The land within the looping ramps to East Ninth and Ontario will be terraced and planted with trees and shrubs.
Plans also call for ramps from East Ninth and Ontario to Interstate 77 south to be ripped out, allowing clearer views of downtown and more green space where the two, busy streets cross.
On the Tremont side, the corner of Abbey Avenue and West 13th -- across from Sokolowski's University Inn -- features terraced seats, planters and a walkway that will link with the Towpath Trail, whenever it reaches the area.
Nearby, Blueberry Hill will feature 10 terraces -- planted with blueberry bushes and leveled with reclaimed rock -- that roll down the resculpted Tremont bluffs toward the river.
Stone from the old Central Viaduct will be reclaimed to mark the center point and lookout between and beneath the two bridges, at Abbey and the Towpath Trail below.
South of Abbey, on land squeezed between West 14th and the nearby ramp to I-90 east, plans call for a small park to be maintained by Cleveland Metroparks.
It will feature trees, vegetation and swales, to capture runoff, as well as a natural play area for children, plans showed.
A 100-car parking lot will lie just west of the park, beneath the bridges. Planners promised residents the area will be well lit and watched by four surveillance cameras.