Converting the Airport Highway interchange on I-475/U.S. 23 to a diverging-diamond layout has been approved for further development funding by the Ohio panel that reviews major transportation projects.
The $4.1 million that the Transportation Review Advisory Council approved Wednesday for the interchange project is a small part of $319.3 million it endorsed for projects statewide during a four-year plan, but the only one in northwest Ohio included in the annual review.
While construction is still several years away, the approval supports preliminary engineering and design to address a section of Airport Highway, part of State Rt. 2, that the Ohio Department of Transportation ranked atop a list of “suburban nonfreeway segments” that have high crash rates…