TOLEDO, Ohio — Residents living near Interstate 475 are once again pushing back against a proposed highway expansion, packing a community meeting over the weekend to voice concerns about the project’s cost, health impacts and long-term effects on surrounding neighborhoods.
Neighbors packed a Sunday afternoon meeting to hear data questioning whether Toledo needs a wider highway and to highlight what organizers described as significant financial and personal costs. The Ohio Department of Transportation has proposed reconstructing and potentially widening I-475 between U.S. 23 and Douglas Road.
“The cost is a quarter of a billion dollars and keeps going up,” said Peggy Daly-Masternack, coordinator of the I-475 Neighborhoods Coalition. “We will have four and a half years of nothing but gridlock.”…