ODOT to open new road to the Flats in time for casino opening

CLEVELAND - Getting to Cleveland’s new casino is about to get easier thanks to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

The East Ninth Extension, part of the Innerbelt project, will open this Friday or early next week depending on weather, according to ODOT spokesperson Jocelynn Clemings.

The half-mile road, designed to divert truck traffic from the Innerbelt Bridge, will ease access to the Flats and Tower City’s Riverview parking lot.

The East Ninth Extension connects the intersection near East 14 and East Ninth streets, Broadway and Orange avenues to Commercial, Canal and Riverview roads in the Flats.

A multi-purpose trial is part of the project and will open a few weeks later.

Bike Month

Cleveland Bike Month may have you pedaling all month long.

Bike Cleveland has a calendar of events on their website, but here are a few upcoming events:

Bike to Work Day is Friday May, 18. While the celebration takes place at the downtown Bike Rack at East Fourth and High by the Q from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m., cyclists can receive free coffee on their commute.

Crank-Set Rides, the Heights Bicycling Coalition and Phoenix are offering free coffee at either end of the Detroit-Superior Bridge, the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge and at Edgehill and Overlook roads in Cleveland Heights.

Mark Gorton will be speaking at the Cleveland City Club, 850 Euclid Ave. His program is entitled Designing Cities for People Not Cars, Wednesday, May 9, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Bikes, Brews & Streetfilms: A Bike Cleveland Social will take place at the Market Garden Brewery on West 25th Street following Gorton’s presentation.

Bike to Yoga

Anne Smith’s Great Lakes Touring Company is offering a bike to yoga program. Meet at the Rocky River Nature Center for a short ride to a picnic area, where a one-hour yoga session will take place.

The rides take place weekly on Monday evenings at 6 p.m.

Cost is $25 per person or $35 with a bike rental.

Click here to link to the website for the event.

Race Across America

Cassie Schumacher of Akron will set off from Oceanside, Calif on June 14th to do the 3,000 mile Race Across America.

Grueling doesn’t seem like enough of an adjective to describe this ride and Schumacher is doing it alone.

Riders make the cross-country ride to Annapolis, Maryland in 12 days or fewer averaging 250 to 300 miles per day while sleeping only a couple of hours a night.

Schumacher will become the first woman from Ohio to do the ride alone.

All monies raised will go to Warriors Journey Home, a Ministry of the First Congregational Church of Christ that helps veterans and their families transition back to civilian life. www.warriorsjourneyhome.org .

Schumacher's father is a veteran who served in Vietnam. She will use this opportunity to raise awareness and funds for to help veterans who suffer from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder or find themselves homeless. 

Monreal Funeral Home is her main sponsor.

More information can be found at www.wheels4change.com

NOACA Bike Count

The folks at the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) are counting cyclists, looking for volunteers and asking cyclists to take a survey.

“We’ll use the information we gather in the survey to update our regional bicycle plan,” says Marc Von Allmen, multimodal planner at NOACA said in a press release.

“One of NOACA’s goals is to enhance the transportation system so that bicycling can be a safer and more convenient option—for recreational riders and for people who ride to work or school. We want to involve the public in helping prioritize how and where bike paths and bike lanes should be built, and this survey is one step in the process.”

Click here to link to their website, the survey and the volunteer information. There’s also a link to Bike Cleveland’s website for Cleveland Bike Month information.