CINCINNATI'S MILL CREEK AREA
May 2007
PART 1
It was a rare sunny day in the 'Nati, so I took the bikey Roads Scholaring in the city's Mill Creek valley again! Despite warnings by the forces of doom, this part of Cincinnati appeared to be very safe from serious crime. This outing also finally yielded an answer as to whether the secret bridge fully connects.
Up to here, my outing was city-like but fairly nondescript. This is north on Spring Grove Avenue. I thought this was odd because of the yellow curve sign hanging above the roadway. If you look closely, you'll also see that this is marked as Alt I-75 - even though this is not a freeway.
This is a bridge on Millcreek Road over Mill Creek. Notice the bridge's striking bright yellow framework!
This falls under the same category as yellow stop signs. Cutout U.S. and state route markers are a relic of the olden days that were replaced by newer styles around 1960. Amazingly, however, this US 27 cutout at the intersection of Colerain Avenue and Elmore Street (not Elmo, but Elmore) survives in 2007! This set of signs is for Truck US 27/127.
Wastage in action! The ramps from I-74 to Colerain Avenue were supposed to be part of a whole separate freeway that would have continued northeast to Hamilton Avenue or even north to I-275. This area here was cleared out for the freeway, but the new road was never even built! An entire block, torn down for nothing! It would have been more wasteful though if they actually had built the freeway, because the proposal was canned before any more damage could be done. This is looking north from Colerain along what used to be whatever street was just west of Jerome Street. This block is an empty field now, but you can still see the abandoned sidewalk and roadway.
For years after the street was abandoned, there was a hill where the field is, but government officials wasted yet more money leveling this hill for no apparent reason.
Looking south on the abandoned street towards Colerain.
Proof that it wasn't just a street that was lost in that boondoggle. Here we're still in the field that was cleared for the unbuilt expressway. This small set of steps is obviously for a house or other small building that was demolished for the road that was never built.
We've moseyed on over to US 127, and we're looking south where Hamilton Avenue becomes Ludlow Avenue. Ludlow Avenue forms a bridge here that - wait! This must be the (funny word alert!) Ludlow...VIADUCT!!! Viaduct is such a neat word! The Ludlow Viaduct goes over I-75, a rail line, Mill Creek, and the William P. Dooley Bypass (a road that parallels the creek and links Spring Grove Avenue). This incarnation of the Ludlow Viaduct opened around 1992, replacing an earlier version.
Now we're on the Ludlow Viaduct, looking north around a curve. Whee!