Editing Interstate 71 (section)

===Ohio===
{{See also|Ohio State Route 1 (1961–1965)}}
Much of I-71 in Ohio was intended to be [[Ohio State Route 1|SR&nbsp;1]]. SR&nbsp;1 was originally planned in the 1950s as a second [[Ohio Turnpike]] extending southwest to northeast across the state. It was planned to run from Cincinnati to [[Conneaut, Ohio|Conneaut]] and connect with an extension built across the panhandle of [[Pennsylvania]] to the [[New York State Thruway]]. As the highway was being planned, the [[Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956]] was enacted, and the project was converted from a toll road to a freeway. It was designated as SR&nbsp;1, since the Interstate Highway numbering system had not yet been implemented. Portions of the freeway began to be completed and opened in 1959 with the new Interstate Highway funding, and they were marked as SR&nbsp;1 as well as with their new Interstate Highway number. Since large gaps existed along the corridor where no freeway had yet been completed, existing two-lane or four-lane highways were also designated as SR&nbsp;1 in order to complete the route. The SR&nbsp;1 signage was removed in 1966 as the Interstate Highway numbers adequately marked the route by then and the state highway numbering was superfluous.

[[File:Sohio columbus i71-1.JPG|thumb|upright=0.549|Columbus-area highway marker designating I-71 and SR&nbsp;1 (1965)]]
In Columbus, the portion of I-71 that bounds Worthington's eastern edge was originally called the North Freeway. Costing $13.8&nbsp;million (equivalent to ${{Formatprice|{{Inflation|US-GDP|13800000|1962}}}} in {{Inflation/year|index=US-GDP}}{{Inflation/fn|index=US-GDP}}), it was constructed south from [[Ohio State Route 161|SR&nbsp;161]], arriving at 11th Avenue by August 1961. It took another year to construct the portion between 11th and 5th avenues, mainly due to the need to construct a massive underpass under the [[Pennsylvania Railroad]]'s Grogan Yard. Today, only two tracks cross the viaduct, and the rest of the structure supports a large, weedy field. By August 1962, the freeway had reached Fifth Avenue, and it reached downtown in November 1962.

I-71 was originally planned to follow the Innerbelt Freeway northward from its current northern terminus to the [[Cleveland Memorial Shoreway]] at [[Dead Man's Curve]] when I-90 was planned to continue westward from there along the Shoreway.<ref>{{cite report |author = Ohio Department of Highways |author-link = Ohio Department of Highways |url = http://www.roadfan.com/clevmap.html |title = 1957–1958 Biennial Report |type = Excerpt |publisher = Ohio Department of Highways |access-date = February 27, 2013 |via = Roadfan.com |archive-date = September 24, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150924091534/http://www.roadfan.com/clevmap.html |url-status = live }}</ref>

Upon its completion, I-71 replaced [[Ohio State Route 3|SR&nbsp;3]] as the primary highway link between Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland.

For more than 30 years {{as of|2025|lc=y}}, there has been discussion about building an interchange at Boston Road on the border of [[Brunswick, Ohio|Brunswick]] in [[Medina County, Ohio|Medina County]] and [[Strongsville, Ohio|Strongsville]] in [[Cuyahoga County, Ohio|Cuyahoga County]] between the [[Ohio State Route 303|SR&nbsp;303]] and [[Ohio State Route 82|SR&nbsp;82]] interchanges.<ref>{{cite news|first=Rich|last=Exner|title=New interchange or not? I-71 corridor study to seek 'holistic solution' to decades-old dilemma|url=https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/04/new-interchange-or-not-i-71-corridor-study-to-seek-holistic-solution-to-decades-old-dilemma.html|work=[[The Plain Dealer]]|location=Cleveland|date=April 9, 2025|access-date=April 10, 2025}}</ref>

Between 2004 and 2006, the interchange at milepost&nbsp;121 in the far northern reaches of Columbus was reconstructed to allow access to the eastern extension of Gemini Place.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=1447.0 |title = Ohio Fuses Two Interchanges in Columbus |author = urbanohio.com |access-date = June 14, 2015 |archive-date = June 15, 2015 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150615140736/http://urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=1447.0 |url-status = live }}{{sps|certain=yes|date=June 2022}}</ref> Before that, it was a simple [[diamond interchange]] with [[Ohio State Route 750|SR&nbsp;750]] (Polaris Parkway).