Brown Secures Major Investment for The North Coast Connector

CLEVELAND, OH - Today, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced a new infrastructure investment for the City of Cleveland to connect downtown Cleveland with Lake Erie and improve the downtown transportation network.

The North Coast Connector project will help transform downtown Cleveland by creating a 120-foot-wide land bridge for pedestrians and reconfigure a two-mile freeway segment that separates Cleveland from its lakefront into a modern and safe boulevard. The City's project will also construct a new consolidated terminal serving Amtrak, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) and intercity bus service. The project's expanded connections between downtown Cleveland and Cleveland's lakefront will provide greater mobility and accelerate plans to build new public green space and redevelop underutilized lakefront property. Brown advocated for the U.S. Department of Transportation to support this project.

"This investment unlocks an exciting new future for Cleveland's lakefront and downtown. The Cleveland community and our visitors will have new access to Lake Erie, our greatest natural resource, and a better transportation network that will drive growth," said Brown. "I want to thank Mayor Bibb, County Executive Ronayne, and Cleveland's business community who all worked with us to support this project that will be transformational for all of us who call Cleveland home."

The City's North Coast Connector project will redesign a two-mile segment of the Memorial Shoreway (State Route 2) to establish new connections between downtown and improve pedestrian safety. The project's pedestrian bridge will create a wide, park-like land bridge to allow walkers and bikers to safely travel from the core of downtown at the Cleveland Mall to the lakefront amenities. The City's plans also include a new multimodal station to serve Amtrak and RTA rail services, and a dedicated, grade-separated truck route that will serve the Port of Cleveland to reduce truck queuing and eliminate pedestrian conflicts, ensuring greater safety and reliability for trucks enter and existing the Port.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded the nearly $60 million investment through the Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight & Highway Projects program (known as the INFRA program) and the funding is being distributed under the Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant Program competition. The investment was made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which Brown helped write and pass. This funding award will support the design, engineering, and construction of road elements, including the port access road, and Brown is supporting additional federal funding requests to accelerate construction of the overall project.

The project's construction of a new multimodal Amtrak station will also help prepare Cleveland for the expansion of Amtrak service under development. Last December, Brown announced that two routes serving Cleveland were selected as priorities for Amtrak expansion: Cleveland-Columbus-Dayton-Cincinnati, the 3C+D corridor, and the Cleveland-Toledo-Detroit corridor. In addition, in May of 2023 Brown announced that the Cleveland RTA received funding for new rail cars, and the new rail cars will give the RTA the ability to provide direct service from across the agency's network to the new lakefront station.

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