Amid the steady hum of traffic, a chorus of cheers and a collective sigh of relief filled the air in Sylvania on Saturday evening as the newly reconstructed Monroe Street bridge over U.S. 23 reopened to traffic, right on schedule.
The bridge officially reopened at 7 pm, Aug. 8, fulfilling a promise made the previous day during a ribbon-cutting ceremony by Ohio Department of Transportation District 2 Deputy Director Pat McColley. “The bridge was completed on time in 153 days,” McColley said. The contractor was permitted 150 days in their contract to keep the bridge closed. During that timeframe they experienced three weather days of lost work that did not count against their closure time.
The reopening marked a significant milestone in the $31.7 million transportation improvement project that has been more than a decade in the making.
Sylvania Mayor Mark Frye joined state and local officials, contractors and community members for Friday’s ribbon cutting.
“I am pleased that the Monroe Street closure lasted only about five months and reopened as scheduled,” Frye said. “Thank you to all for your patience regarding the inconvenience associated with the closure.”
Although motorists can once again cross the bridge, McColley said some work remains before the project is fully complete.
Traffic will be maintained while crews complete final paving, pavement striping and beam painting. Those activities could require temporary lane reductions controlled by flaggers. However, the demolition of the former northbound exit ramp bridge will not affect traffic, McColley said.
“There will also be some general finish work along with cleanup yet to be done,” he said. “Continue to watch for workers, move over and slow down through work zones.”
The project included raising, widening and replacing the Monroe Street bridge deck over U.S. 23. The new bridge deck was elevated 9¼ inches to improve clearance. Additional improvements included realigning the northbound entrance and exit ramps to create a single four-way intersection at Monroe Street and Alexis Road, eliminating three traffic signals. The southbound entrance ramp was also realigned to improve safety.
Crews constructed two new bridges carrying the southbound entrance ramp and the northbound exit ramp over the Ottawa River. Capacity was increased by adding lanes to the northbound exit ramp to Monroe Street and extending turn lanes from westbound Monroe Street to southbound U.S. 23. The former westbound Alexis Road ramp to northbound U.S. 23 was permanently closed.
Sylvania Service Director Joe Shaw said the project has been a priority since he joined the city’s administration 14 years ago.
“The ODOT-Sylvania partnership has spanned over 10 years with this project, and to see all the planning and coordination with transportation and safety officials come to fruition in the successful reopening of the bridge, on schedule, is a true testament to all the talented people involved with this project,” Shaw said.
While the engineering challenges were manageable, McColley acknowledged assembling the funding package proved far more complex. “Although the road and bridge construction itself wasn’t very complicated, the funding of the $31.7 million project was,” he said and Mayor Frye noted the city is contributing about 20 percent of the total project cost through a combination of funding sources.
The financing package includes ODOT’s Highway Safety Improvement Program and District 2 Urban Paving Program, a cost-sharing partnership that helps municipalities improve state and federal highways within their communities. Additional funding came from the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program administered by the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, now known as Lake Erie West; and the Ohio Public Works Commission.

Joe Mehling, executive director of nearby Dave White Chevrolet noted, “We at Dave White are ecxited to have the corner of Alexis and Monroe open again and although we will miss our small section of Acres Road we can see how great the new corner is and are happy that “The place to go is still Alexis and Monroe Dave White Chevrolet.”
As the last of the ribbon-cutting ceremonial speeches concluded, anticipation centered on a simple milestone: seeing traffic once again flow across one of Sylvania’s busiest gateways.
Less than 24 hours later, that promise became reality. At 7 pm Saturday, vehicles streamed across the new bridge as residents, business owners and city officials celebrated the reopening of a corridor that had been more than a decade in the planning and just 153 days in the making. For a community that patiently endured months of detours and disruption, the return of traffic signaled more than the end of construction; it marked the beginning of safer travel and a stronger connection between the east and west sides of Sylvania.