Public Infrastructure Costs for New Browns Stadium Surge Past $120 Million

This article was published through an exclusive content-sharing agreement with neo-trans.blog.

Building a 67,000-seat stadium where none has existed before is proving to be a big expense for expanding road and transit systems to accommodate huge surges in traffic on a relatively small number of event days each year. And it is government funding that is being requested to cover that construction expense which has now risen to $122.15 million.

A committee of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), a metropolitan area planning organization that distributes federal funds to infrastructure projects in Greater Cleveland, is due to meet Friday to discuss the who, what, when, where and why of funding those seven projects — called buildable units in planning documents.

Planning for these seven infrastructure projects to support public access to the new $2.4 billion Huntington Bank Field stadium is still in the early stages, so costs may change as the designs are refined. And some projects may get scaled down or even eliminated if funding is not available for them.

NOACA documents show that a concern of its staff as well as Planning and Programming Committee members is an apparent lack of onsite parking and a need for off-site parking, including on the other side of Interstate 71.

NEOtrans recently reported that the Brook Park stadium will have the third-least amount of onsite parking among 15 National Football League facilities not located in downtown areas.

That’s after 40-70 acres of adjacent land is used for stadium-area development including restaurants, shops, hotels, housing and other entertainment. It remains to be seen how many parking garages are built onsite and how many spaces in them are available for stadium event parking.

“Off-site parking is a major question for this development project,” a NOACA staff summary noted. “It is staff’s understanding the development is estimated to provided (sic) approximately 12,000 to 13,000 spaces on-site.”

“According to the (City of Brook Park), it is anticipated that all off-site parking will be northeast of the project site along Engle Road, West 164th Street, and Brookpark Road,” the summary continued. “However, it is unclear where necessary off-site parking along these roadways will be located and available.”

NOACA is recommending traffic studies be conducted in addition to a detailed study on where off-site parking will be located on event days. Any studies would also have to estimate how many stadium users are estimated to travel by transit or rideshare services.

“(This) is recommended in order to understand the impacts to traffic in the surrounding area,” NOACA staff added. The lack of parking has prompted a late and, so far, the largest addition to the scope of transportation infrastructure planning.

A new $40 million rapid transit train station is proposed on the Red Line that links Cleveland Hopkins International Airport with Downtown Cleveland and the rest of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s (GCRTA) rail and bus system. It represents the entirety of the infrastructure cost increase from $82 million to $122 million.

The new station is proposed to be located outside of the Red Line’s subway tunnel portal that leads to the rail station below Hopkins Airport’s main passenger terminal. It requires moving the Red Line’s tracks to insert a boarding platform between them, building a pedestrian bridge over the busy Norfolk Southern railroad mainline and adding a ramp, stairs and elevator to that bridge.

The west end of the Red Line is going to see some big changes in the coming years. Funding is already in hand for the first components of a new $1.6 billion Hopkins Airport terminal, including a new $301 million Ground Transportation Center with a 6,000-space parking garage atop a new subway station for the Red Line.

The new Ground Transportation Center is due to open in 2029 — the same year as the new stadium. The new transport center will be located on the other side of State Route 237 and the Norfolk Southern tracks from the new Huntington Bank Field, or less than 1,500 feet away on a straight line, per Google Earth.

A spokesman for the Haslam Sports Group (HSG) told NEOtrans that a pedestrian walkway over the highway and railroad, linking the airport and the new stadium, was not in their plans.

Part of the concern is that less-costly airport parking could be overwhelmed by stadium visitors. HSG owns the Cleveland Browns and is developing the new stadium for its home football games and other events. It bought nearly 180 acres of land for the stadium in June.

The proposed Red Line station for the stadium is not in GCRTA’s plans either, as any capital or operating funding for it would take away from already tight transit funding for the rest of the existing system. It is not yet clear where the funding would come from for this new station.

“Regarding this rail station project and funding, you need to contact the Haslam Sports Group for answers and details,” said GCRTA Public Information Officer Robert Fleig. “It’s their project.”

NOACA planning documents show that the sponsor of all of the infrastructure projects is the City of Brook Park which means they are responsible for locating the funding from local, state, federal and private sources. NOACA says the city hasn’t located funding for the Red Line station either.

If the transit station is not built, an alternative would be to provide shuttle buses to and from the existing Brookpark Red Line station which is about 1 mile north of the stadium site.

Brook Park has developed seven “buildable units” — six roadway features and one transit element — as a single project funding request, simply called the Public Infrastructure Improvements Project.

It submitted this to the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Transportation Review Advisory Council (TRAC) for funding. The TRAC scores and ranks projects for funding based on safety, traffic impacts, economic development and environmental considerations.

In June, the NOACA Board of Directors adopted a resolution stating it “does not recommend and does not assign a priority ranking to the City of Brook Park Public

Infrastructure Improvements Project at this time, primarily due to insufficient information to evaluate and rank the project.”

The seven buildable units (BU)s are as follows (see map):

1 — I-71 NB-Snow Road ramp — A left turn lane will be added to the Snow Road / Interstate 71 northbound (NB) exit ramp. The widening is planned to be done on the west side of the existing ramp to avoid impacts to residential properties on the east. Minor modifications to the NB cloverleaf entrance ramp will be required, to allow for the widening of the NB exit ramp. The estimated cost of BU1 is $1,240,000.

2 — I-71 SB-Snow/Flyover Ramp — This includes a proposed I-71 southbound (SB) slip ramp to Engle Road southbound with the elimination of the northbound movement over the CSX tracks, WB Snow Road slip ramp to Engle southbound, and a new I-71 SB exit ramp flyover bridge to Ring Road (currently Five Points Road/State Route 291 linking Engle to Henry Ford Boulevard.

The I-71 SB exit flyover ramp to Ring Road includes a five-span, curved steel plate girder bridge, with an approximate length of 600 feet carrying two lanes of I-71 SB exit traffic to Ring. The bridge will span Engle and CSX RR. Approach embankments will be supported by mechanically stabilized earth walls at each end. The estimated cost of BU2 is $21,840,000.

3 — Snow-Engle Connector — This provides access that does not currently exist for all Snow traffic to Engle and includes a new intersection installed at the first span of the existing Snow bridge. Modifications to the existing Snow bridge are anticipated, including the elimination of the first two two bridge spans with a new abutment constructed. New retaining walls are proposed to support the north-south lanes of the Snow/Ring intersection.

This also includes roadway improvements to Snow from SR237 to the Snow bridge. Five Points will be relocated by removing the one-way section along the site perimeter, and the section south of Snow will have a cul-de-sac and a new intersection with Snow. The estimated cost BU3 is $9,890,000.

4 — Engle realignment — Planned is the widening and realignment of approximately 1,300 feet of Engle, starting just south of Snow, continuing beneath the Snow bridge and the proposed I-71 southbound exit ramp flyover bridge (in BU2), and ending at Ring. The required number of lanes will be determined based on the results of the traffic study. The estimated cost of BU4 is $1,770,000.

5 — Stadium Ring Road — Planned is 5,300 feet of roadway improvements creating a “ring” around the stadium and development site. Beginning 2,200 feet south of Brookpark Road, this five-lane section includes the reconstruction of Engle/Five Points/Henry Ford. South of Hummel Road, the roadway widens to seven lanes, creating an intersection with a realigned Engle and the lanes from the Snow-to-Engle Connector and the new I-71 SB flyover ramp.

The portion of roadway from this intersection to the Connector is called Ring during the design phase. The City of Brook Park says the number of lanes needed along Ring will be confirmed through the traffic study. The estimated cost of BU5 is $14,600,000.

6 — Pedestrian bridge & walkway — Proposed is a pedestrian bridge to provide safe access for pedestrians utilizing off-site parking northeast of the stadium site along Engle, West 164th, and Brookpark Road. Site of the pedestrian bridge is being investigated.

The city’s preferred option would be to construct a pedestrian walkway from West 164th, parallel to I-71 on the east side, south to Hummel with a pedestrian bridge over Engle to the development site. The estimated cost of BU6 is $14,940,000.

7 – GCRTA Red Line rail transit station — Detail of this project is noted above. The estimated cost of BU7 is $40,000,000. All estimated costs are by the City of Brook Park.

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