The road is owned and maintained by the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission (OTIC), headquartered in Berea.

The entire length of the Ohio Turnpike is 241.3 miles (388.3 km), from the western terminus in Northwest Township near Edon, where it meets the Indiana Toll Road at the Ohio–Indiana border, to the eastern terminus in Springfield Township near Petersburg where it meets the Pennsylvania Turnpike at the Ohio–Pennsylvania border.

[3] Construction for the road cost $326 million and was recorded as the biggest project in state history, with 10,000 employees, more than 2,300 bulldozers, graders, loaders and other machines over a 38-month period.

[1][4] On December 1, 1954, the first 22-mile (35 km) stretch (the portion lying east of SR 18) opened near the present-day exit 218 for I-76 and I-80.

Several motorists attended a dedication ceremony, with over 1,000 people joining a caravan, following a snow plow and a patrol cruiser, to become the first to drive the turnpike.

[23] The Ohio Turnpike Commission had been hesitant to deploy an electronic tolling system, citing an apparent lack of commuter travel as well as significant implementation expenses.

Despite opposition from the Ohio Trucking Association, the increase was approved by the Commission by a vote of 4–1[26][27] and went into effect on April 1, 2011.

[28] In July 2012, the way tickets were paid for was tweaked to deter truckers from trying to evade them, which had been an issue since the road opened.

[30][31] In 2010 and 2011, Governor John Kasich stated that he would consider a turnpike lease, but only during a prosperous economic period.

[32] In August 2011, Kasich stated his intention to create a task force to produce a leasing plan and also considered the option of reassigning the maintenance of the highway to the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT).

[33] Ultimately he decided against both, instead proposing to issue more debt under the renamed Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission, with cash tolls raised annually over a ten-year period to compensate.

[34] A project to add one lane in each direction from Toledo to Youngstown was started in 1996, using financing from increased tolls.

[41] Part of the largest building program on the toll road since its original opening in 1955, the system was implemented on April 10, 2024.

[43] The Ohio State Highway Patrol cited in a report that a series of fatal accidents at the mainline barrier in Swanton Township on August 15, 2024, were caused in part by this confusion, and the National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation into them.

Initially, the new plazas were rebranded by signage depicting them as "travel centers", but reverted back to the original nomenclature.

The service plazas located in Lucas County west of Toledo at mile marker 49 were the least utilized, so were closed and demolished; the Swanton toll barrier was later built at the site.

Due to the lack of a municipal water/sewer system, the service plazas located near mile marker 20 in Williams County were demolished in 2006,[50][52] though they were eventually rebuilt and reopened on June 29, 2011.

[55] In April 2008, Governor Ted Strickland and legislative leaders announced a planned stimulus package that would redistribute Turnpike tolls to road projects throughout the state.

[56][57] On May 23, the Ohio Senate Finance Committee voted to pass a new version of the package which would not involve tolls collected.

This was done to "alleviate confusion from the irregular sequence of numerical references" due to recently added interchanges as well as to conform to federal standards.