An innerbelt or outerbelt is a
ring road
A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...
or collection of roadways which is or implies that it is inner or outer ring road in relation to another ring road. Use of these terms is most common and near-exclusive to routes in the
United States, mostly in the state of
Ohio.
Examples
*
Akron, Ohio – Akron's innerbelt is designated as
Ohio State Route 59, from its terminus at
Interstate 76 (I-76) to its proposed end at
State Route 8.
*
Charlotte, North Carolina – Charlotte's innerbelt is composed of
I-277 orbiting to the east, south, and north of downtown and of
I-77
Interstate 77 (I-77) is a north–south Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. It traverses diverse terrain, from the mountainous state of West Virginia to the rolling farmlands of North Carolina and Ohio. It largely supplants the ...
covering the west side.
*
Chicago, Illinois – Chicago's outerbelt is a collection of bikeways and hiking trails which form a loop around Chicago's southern and central regions.
*
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
– Cleveland's innerbelt is formed by the confluence of
I-90
Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...
and the northern terminuses of
I-71 and
I-77
Interstate 77 (I-77) is a north–south Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. It traverses diverse terrain, from the mountainous state of West Virginia to the rolling farmlands of North Carolina and Ohio. It largely supplants the ...
. This short stretch of highway ends at "
Dead Man's Curve
Dead Man's Curve is an American nickname for a curve in a road that has claimed lives because of numerous crashes.
Examples
* A curve on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles memorialized in the hit song "Dead Man's Curve" by Jan and Dean. The song' ...
". Cleveland's innerbelt was planned as a closed loop. The highway is in the early stages of an extensive rebuild (the
record of decision (ROD) was issued on September 18, 2009). This rebuild includes replacement of the
Innerbelt Bridge along its route by the
George V. Voinovich Bridges
The George V. Voinovich Bridges are two bridges in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., that carry Interstate 90 (I-90, Innerbelt Freeway) over the Cuyahoga River. They are named for George Voinovich, former mayor of Cleveland, Governor of Ohio, and United S ...
.
*
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...
– In Columbus, the innerbelt is formed by
I-670 to the north, I-71 to the east,
I-70 to the south, and
Ohio State Route 315 to the west. Columbus is the sole city in the United States to frequently refer to one of its highways (
Interstate 270) as The Outerbelt.
See also
*
Interstate 695 (Massachusetts)
The Inner Belt in Boston was a planned six-lane, limited-access highway that would have run through parts of Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville.
Original plan
The highway would have been called Interstate 695 and would have provided a ...
, an innerbelt highway that was planned but not ultimately built
*
Inner/Outer labeling
References
{{reflist
Types of roads