The Cuyahoga River shipping channel, which includes about 20 bridges over more than 6.5 miles of waterway from Lake Erie inland, is well maintained and safe to travel, according to various government agencies charged with inspection and upkeep of the channel.
The channel, through which about 13 million tons of cargo pass each year, is dredged annually, meaning that sediment accumulating at the river bottom is removed so that the waterway stays deep enough for ships to travel.
Meanwhile, the Irishtown Bend project, which involves stabilizing a riverbank that has been in danger of collapsing into the channel on the near West Side, has begun. The project, scheduled for completion in 2027, includes a 23-acre park.
As for the bridges, some are rated in fair condition and at least one in poor condition. However, Port of Cleveland officials say that the kind of catastrophe that occurred in Baltimore — where a ship slammed into a support pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the bridge to fall and resulting in the death of six people — is unlikely to happen here. That’s because, unlike the Baltimore bridge, the lift, swing and fixed bridges over the Cuyahoga are supported from the riverbanks and have no support structures in the waterway.
William Friedman, president and CEO of the Port of Cleveland, says skilled and experienced ship masters pilot vessels in the Cuyahoga and know the river intimately.
“They also keep vessel speeds low — much lower than the speed of the ship that hit the Key bridge, as appropriate in a much more confined navigation channel,” Friedman says.
“(Also), the ships that transit the shipping channel here are substantially smaller with less mass than the ship that hit the Key bridge,” Friedman adds. “All these factors mean much lower, but not zero, risk of an incident that would compromise a bridge over a Cleveland commercial waterway.”
Friedman said the most significant risk to the shipping channel was a landslide into the river at Irishtown bend, which the port is now addressing.
Bridge Ratings
The 2021 Report Card for Ohio’s Infrastructure, published by the Ohio Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, gave the state’s bridges an overall C+ grade, although it didn’t report on individual bridges. According to the report card, a C means that a bridge system is in fair to good condition but shows signs of deterioration and requires attention.
“Some elements exhibit significant deficiencies in conditions and functionality, with increasing vulnerability to risk,” the report cards says of bridge systems with a C grade.
The National Bridge Inventory database, kept by the Federal Highway Administration, rates bridges based on state inspections. It shows that at least a few bridges in the Cuyahoga River shipping channel are in good condition. These are the West 3rd Street lift bridge, owned by the city of Cleveland; the George V. Voinovich bridges, owned by the Ohio Department of Transportation, which take Interstate 90 traffic over the river; and the Columbus Road bridge, owned by Cuyahoga County.
Other bridges in the shipping channel are listed in fair condition. These include the Main Avenue and Carter Road bridges, owned by Cleveland, and the Detroit-Superior and Troy Lee James Highway or Interstate 490 bridges, owned by ODOT.
The Hope Memorial Bridge, which joins Carnegie and Lorain avenues and contains the locally famous Guardians of Traffic sculptures, is in poor condition, according to the National Bridge Inventory. ODOT owns the bridge.
Brent Kovacs, ODOT spokesman, says the state rates the Hope Memorial Bridge a 4 on a scale of 1-10. He says the rating compares how the bridge was built to its current condition and does not indicate how much traffic or weight it can handle.
“That number should not be concerning,” Kovacs says. “It just tells us we need to schedule a project to increase the rating. It does not say we need to reduce the legal load on the bridge, which is the number of vehicles or heavy semi-trucks that travel the bridge.”
Kovacs says ODOT is scheduling a Hope Memorial improvement project for 2027, although the scope of work has not yet been determined. ODOT also plans to repair the deck, structural steel and drainage system of the state-owned Troy Lee James or 490 bridge in spring 2025. Kovacs says ODOT inspects bridges regularly.
“If ODOT believes that a bridge is unsafe, it will close it in a second,” Kovacs says.
The city of Cleveland, with help from ODOT, was planning to start demolition of the Eagle Avenue lift bridge this summer. The bridge, which hasn’t been used for nearly 20 years, was deemed unsafe and too costly to repair. The deck was left permanently in the up position so that river traffic can pass.
Checks & Balances
Federal agencies are also involved in monitoring and maintaining the Cuyahoga because the river is considered a federal navigation channel. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers handles the river dredging, and the U.S. Coast Guard issues permits for construction, demolition, maintenance and rehabilitation of all bridges.
“We also ensure that the provisions of the Environmental Protection Agency are met and maintained and develop and implement all of the operating regulations for movable bridges,” says Blair Stanifer, commander of the Ninth Coast Guard District in Cleveland.
Having several agencies at various levels of government monitoring the river is advantageous in some respects. However, with no overarching authority overseeing the channel, it can be hard to track down information or determine who’s in charge of bridge maintenance.
For example, none of the agencies contacted — including the Port of Cleveland, ODOT and the Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works — were able to provide the precise number of bridges in the shipping channel, perhaps because no one entity owns them all.
Kovacs says that although ODOT owns many bridges in the channel, Cleveland, due to home rule, performs routine maintenance on them. ODOT is responsible only for “major maintenance.”
Conversely, the city of Cleveland owns the Center Street swing bridge, but it was ODOT last year that replaced the bridge’s steel beams and repaired the swing mechanisms. ODOT’s involvement was required because the city was awarded state and federal funds for the project.
Thomas Sotak, chief deputy of engineering with the Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works, says the county owns just one bridge — the Columbus Road lift bridge — in the shipping channel. However, the county is only responsible for the bridge parts that don’t move. The city of Cleveland is responsible for the moving parts.
Future Prospects
The shipping channel has the attention of elected officials, who are lobbying for improvements and enthusiastic about its future.
The office of U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, D-11, says $3 million in federal money is funding a study of the harbor to determine and address its cargo handling, economic development and environmental needs, along with its regional planning goals.
Also, Congress appropriated $11 million toward the rehabilitation of two of the port’s main docks.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office adds that the Water Resources Development Act of 2020 provided funds to help maintain Great Lakes harbors and shipping channels, including the Cuyahoga.
Meanwhile, Ohio Sen. Nickie J. Antonio, whose District 23 includes the shipping channel, credits the port for expanding its vision of the shipping channel to include recreation and entertainment. For instance, the port has increased the number of cruise ships stopping in Cleveland.
Dave Gutheil, chief commercial officer of the Port of Cleveland, says cruise ships started docking in Cleveland in 2017. That year there were nine, and the number reached 48 in 2023. After a dip to 24 cruise ship stops this year, due to one cruise line shutting down, the number is expected to rebound to 50 in 2025.
“The shipping channel is such an alive portion of our city,” Antonio says. “You’re eating at a restaurant in the Flats. Here comes a working ship. The river has so many different values.”
