ODOT Plans to Remove Traffic Signal at Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport Exit

May 1—Motorists leaving Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport soon won't have the benefit of a traffic light because the Ohio Department of Transportation plans to remove it after determining there isn't enough traffic to justify it.

The signal on Airport Highway is to be placed in flashing mode during the week of May 10, with stop signs erected for traffic leaving the airport and a dead-end stub of Whitehouse-Spencer Road on the intersection's opposite side.

Rebecca Dangelo, an ODOT spokesman in Bowling Green, said the airport intersection's traffic study was performed in October, 2019 — before the coronavirus pandemic's onset sharply curtailed air travel at Toledo Express and throughout the United States.

Once a signal is placed on flash, the ODOT process calls for monitoring "traffic and crash activity" for 90 days. The signal then may be deactivated and the signal heads removed, followed by another 60-day monitoring period before the remaining hardware is dismantled.

Joe Cappel, vice president of business development for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, said his agency — which operates Toledo Express under a long-term city lease — has asked ODOT to take a second look at the airport signal before removing it.

"I reached out to ODOT and shared some thoughts with them," Mr. Cappel said Friday. "We're looking at different alternatives, including leaving it as it is."

But Mr. Cappel said the port authority is not formally objecting to the removal — at least, not now. He acknowledged that the airport intersection may not meet traffic-volume thresholds used to justify traffic signals, even though there are reasons beyond air travel that motorists go to the airport.

"We just don't really know enough about it," he said.

A nearby signal at Airport Highway's intersection with Ohio Turnpike interchange ramps and an airport entrance is not affected.

ODOT said it also plans to start the formal process for removing a stoplight on U.S. 20A at Traxler Road in Williams County, an intersection primarily used by traffic going to and from a Menards warehouse nearby.

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