Ohio State Route 59 - History

History

State Route 59 was certified in 1969. The general route was originally designated as State Route 36 until 1932 and as State Route 5 from 1932 to 1969; however, State Route 5 now takes a turn south on an expressway southeast of Ravenna towards I-76 rather than heading west to Cuyahoga Falls and Akron. The route is a freeway in its shared portion with State Route 8 southward from Front Street in Cuyahoga Falls. State Route 59 is signposted as following Perkins Avenue westward from State Route 8, where, at Howard Street, it becomes the freeway officially known as the Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway, more commonly referred to as the Innerbelt. (Until August 17, 2007, this routing was identified in Ohio DOT records as State Route 59T, whereas State Route 59 in the records continued south along State Route 8 and ended at the Market Street/State Route 18 underpass.) The rest of the route is formed by regular roads, with the exception of the Haymaker Parkway in Kent, which is a bypass with cross streets.

The section of the route that runs through Stow and Kent was widened sometime in the 1980s. The section in Cuyahoga Falls from the State Route 8 to near Victor St. was widened in 2004 to meet state requirements due to high traffic levels.

The prior alignment of State Route 59 is primarily followed by the current State Route 113.