CLEVELAND — Total solar eclipse day has finally arrived in Northeast Ohio, along with the Cleveland Guardians home opener at Progressive Field. With thousands expected to view the eclipse and check out some baseball, traffic is expected to be congested.
How busy are the highways? What do the roads look like right now? We're tracking eclipse traffic with real-time updates throughout the story below. Be sure to refresh this page frequently as new updates will appear at the top of the timeline.
But first, here are some important eclipse resources for you to check out:
- TIMELINE: What time does the solar eclipse happen today in Northeast Ohio? Check this list to see when you can watch in your area
- WEATHER: Solar eclipse weather forecast: Here's what you can expect at the moment of totality in Northeast Ohio
- EVENTS: LIST: Solar eclipse events happening in Northeast Ohio on April 8
- LIVE SHOW: WATCH LIVE | April 8 solar eclipse in Northeast Ohio: Special coverage starts at 2 p.m. Monday
- GUARDIANS: Cleveland Guardians vs. Chicago White Sox 2024 home opener guide: How to watch the April 8 game on WKYC; what's new at Progressive Field
5:29 p.m. Down in Akron, the right two lanes are closed on I-76 East at I-76 East/I-77 South due to a crash.
4:14 p.m. The eclipse is over, but the traffic problems are not. ODOT reports that the right three lanes are closed on I-480 West beyond SR-8 /Northfield Rd, due to a disabled vehicle.
4 p.m. The Streetsboro Police Department reports a crash on St. Rt. 303 near Diagonal Rd. in Shalersville. Officials state the road is closed due to wires across the road. Avoid the area for the next 1-2 hrs.
2:27 p.m. Cleveland Metroparks says the parking lots at East 55th, East 72nd, Gordon Park north and Gordon Park south are all closed.
1:45 p.m. Cleveland Metroparks have announced that the parking lots at Huntington Beach Park have now closed.
1:29 p.m. Cleveland Metroparks have announced that the parking lots at Edgewater Park have closed.
12:30 p.m. As we move to less than three hours until totality, the city of Cleveland has closed the West Shoreway. Per Cleveland's eclipse traffic plan, Route 2 Westbound (Shoreway) ramps will be closed at I-90. All other ramps to the Shoreway will be open in both directions.
12 p.m. The Ohio Department of Transportation says it is staffing its Incident Management Center all day to help respond to any incidents before, during, and after the eclipse.
11:00 a.m. As we start our coverage for the day, here's a reminder from ODOT to stay off the shoulders and ramps, and not pull off to the side of the highway to watch the eclipse.
PREVIEW
Just how bad is traffic really expected to be across Northeast Ohio on Monday?
“I think every road is going to be very busy," ODOT's Matt Bruning said during our eclipse streaming special Thursday night with 3News' Betsy Kling and Jay Crawford. "Think about the fact that many of these roads were built for hundreds of vehicles per day, they’re going to be seeing thousands, if not ten thousands of vehicles, on that day. It’s just going to be busy everywhere."
With Cleveland and Akron both among the locations that fall within the path of totality, we're expecting to see an influx of visitors coming to our area to experience the historic moment.
"You just can’t put seven gallons of water in a five gallon bucket," Bruning said. "That’s what we’re going to be seeing. We’re going to see a lot more people than we have capacity on the road network for because everybody’s going to be interested in it.”
He said the key is to pack some patience.
"It is going to take you a lot longer -- probably two, three, four maybe even five or six times longer -- to get to your destination once you are trying to leave the eclipse than it would, say, on a normal Monday. It’s just going to take a long time.”
The main concern is that many will immediately hit the roads right after the eclipse ends.
“I kind of equate this to a fireworks show," Bruning explained. "Everybody kind of trickles in, and then the grand finale goes off and everyone gets in their cars at the same time and leaves. This is totally different than any other event you could even conceive. The 2016 RNC was a big deal, but that was confined to Cleveland. We’ve had World Series, we’ve had All-Star games, we’ve had other big events – but they’ve been confined to a city. This is literally multiple counties – tens of thousands of square miles of people all doing the same thing at the same time and then wanting to leave that same thing at the same time. That’s where we’re really concerned about having the big traffic congestion. That’s what we’ve heard from other states that experienced 2017 totality, is that traffic will be much, much worse than before.”