According to transporthint, US 33 is a US Highway in the US state of Ohio. The road forms a diagonal east-west route from Wilshire on the Indiana border through the state capital Columbus to Ravenswood in West Virginia. Large parts of the route have 2×2 lanes or are a motorway. The total route is 388 kilometers long.

Travel directions

US 33 at Canal Winchester, near Columbus.

Western Ohio

Near the town of Wilshire, US 33 crosses the Indiana – Ohio border and then heads southeast through vast rural areas. The underlying road network here is built in a perfect grid pattern of 1 by 1 mile. After 40 kilometers you reach the town of St. Marys, from where the US 33 as a 2×2 divided highway runs eastwards to Interstate 75 at Wapakoneta. After that, US 33 is a regular single-lane highway again. It continues through the countryside, which gradually becomes more hilly to Bellefontaine, after which US 33 becomes a highway until Columbus.

Columbus

The highway section to the Columbus ring road is about 70 kilometers long and mainly runs through countryside. At Marysville you cross US 36. The highway has 2×2 lanes until Interstate 270, the Columbus ring road. The road then becomes an urban arterial in the urban area and runs south along the Scioto River. One passes here through quiet residential areas. The road runs through downtown Columbus as a city highway and intersects with Interstate 670, State Route 315, Interstate 71 and Interstate 70. At the suburbBlacklick Estates you cross the I-270 ring road again and leave the conurbation.

Eastern Ohio

The road then runs to the southeast as 2×2 divided highway. Around the town of Lancaster, US 33 forms a short highway of 20 kilometers and at Logan and Athens there are two more highway sections. The main road is multi-lane all the way to Pomeroy on the Ohio River. The road then turns east and crosses the West Virginia border at Ravenswood and joins Interstate 79.

History

According to travelationary, US 33 was added to the network in 1938. It is one of a number of diagonal US Highways in Ohio. The route has been modified most significantly in the Ohio River Valley, where the road originally crossed the Ohio River into West Virginia via the Pomeroy-Mason Bridge. In 1981 this was changed to the new Ravenswood Bridge, 25 miles to the southeast. The route of US 33 in Ohio also became longer. Several parts have also been upgraded to freeway or a 2×2 divided highway.

Wilshire – Columbus

The section from Columbus to the Indiana border at Wilshire is largely constructed as a freeway, between Dublin and Bellefontaine and the St Marys bypass. Around 1966, the first stretch of freeway opened from the north side of Bellefontaine to Huntsville for 7 kilometers. Shortly thereafter, circa 1968-1969, a long stretch of freeway opened from Dublin beyond Marysville, measuring 31 kilometers in length. At that time there was no interchange with I-270 near Dublin, this part of the Columbus ring road opened to traffic in 1971.

Around 1971, Wapakoneta’s southern bypass opened to traffic, connecting to I-75, but not with an interchange, but a regular connection. The rest of the Wapakoneta bypass was a grade-separated freeway. In 1973, the connecting section from Wapakoneta to northwest of St. Marys opened to traffic. This included 15 kilometers of new 2×2 divided highway, but not completely grade-separated.

Subsequently, the section from Marysville to Bellefontaine was built. The Bellefontaine bypass was first completed, circa 1976, but not completely as a freeway. Parts of the later freeway were initially constructed with one carriageway. Subsequently, from Marysville and Bellefontaine, it was built towards each other, mainly in the 1990s. The first section of this opened circa 1989 between Marysville and the Honda factory. It took until about 1998-1999 before the missing part near Zanesfield was opened.

Columbus

In the capital Columbus, the Southeast Expressway has been constructed, a more than 8 kilometer long highway that functions as the southeast approach to the city. This highway opened to traffic circa 1965 and was one of the first highways in Columbus. This highway was built before I-70 and I-270, which explains that a complete connection to I-70 was not built at the time. However, a cloverleaf with I-270 has been built.

Columbus – Ravenswood

US 33 has been widened almost completely into a 2×2 divided highway or freeway in southeastern Ohio, often over a new route. First, the section between Lancaster and Columbus was widened to 2×2 lanes, the first section of which opened around 1959, immediately following a fairly long route from Lancaster to Canal Winchester, which at the time was still quite well outside Columbus, but is now an outer suburb .is. In the early 1960s, the first parts between Athens and Lancaster were also widened, from these places towards each other. The section between Canal Winchester and Columbus was also widened to 2×2 lanes in the early 1960s. By 1970, almost the entire route between Athens and Lancaster had been widened to 2×2 lanes, except for the Nelsonville bypass, which was not opened as a freeway until October 1, 2013. Another project was a long bypass of Lancaster. Traffic originally had to pass through the center of Lancaster, a route that had 2×2 lanes but had quite a few traffic lights. The 21-kilometer freeway around Lancaster opened to traffic in 2005.

Traffic intensities

The highway section near the Dublin suburb of Columbus has a maximum of 65,000 vehicles per day. The rest of the highway sections are much quieter.