The Tulsa World
by: GAVIN OFF World Data Editor
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
9/9/2009 4:46:40 AM
View a PDF of the Transportation
Department’s construction plan.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation approved
Tuesday a more than $4 billion, eight-year construction plan that
includes work on more than 560 bridges and dozens of projects in the
Tulsa area.
The plan, which stretches through 2017, outlines the road and bridge
projects that state officials hope to tackle. The plan is normally
updated each year.
The plan includes repairs or replacement of about 563 bridges,
an increase of more than 100 from last year's plan, the Transportation
Department said in a news release. Also planned are more than 446 miles
of shoulder and other upgrades to two-lane roads, $1.9 billion in
upgrades to major highways and an additional 62 miles of median
barriers, the release said.
For Tulsa County, the list includes money to widen Interstate 44, build
a new interchange at 116th Street North and U.S. 75, and repair bridges
and pavement on the Broken Arrow Expressway.
"It is the most comprehensive plan the agency has ever had,"
said Gary Ridley, the state secretary of transportation and the
department's director.
Ridley said work on the additional 109 bridges in this year's plan
would cost about $260 million. But he said the proposed work, along
with the bridge work that the department has completed in recent years,
would help Oklahoma out of its deteriorating bridge crisis.
As of early 2008, Oklahoma had about 5,680 structurally deficient
bridges. These are bridges in need of significant maintenance, repairs
or replacement. An additional 1,788 of the state's 24,000 bridges were
functionally obsolete — or too small for the traffic they carry, a
Tulsa World analysis found.
"It was our opinion that it would take 12 to 15 years to work our way out of the problem," Ridley said.
Dozens of projects are slated for the Tulsa area, including work on Interstate 44, Interstate 244, U.S. 75 and Oklahoma 11.
Ridley said the department developed the plan based on a conservative
estimate of available federal and state funds and construction costs.
He said the federal stimulus money has helped speed some projects and
allowed others to take their place.
Gary Evans, the department's director of operations, said about 87
percent of the department's $464 million of stimulus money has been
obligated to projects so far.
Nearly 160 projects, totaling about $405 million, have been put out for
bids. Of those, work has started on 108 projects, totaling about $357
million, Evans said. Eight projects, totaling $14.3 million, have been
completed. Oklahoma ranks third in percentage of federal stimulus funds
on projects put out to bid, under contract or begun.
"This is quite a great accomplishment to be third in the
country," Transportation Department commission member Bruce Benbrook
said.
Gavin Off 732-8106
gavin.off@tulsaworld.com
Associate Images:
Construction
along Interstate 44 near the Arkansas River is part of a project to
widen the highway to six lanes between Riverside Drive and Yale Avenue.
TOM GILBERT/Tulsa World file
Posted on
Wed, September 9, 2009
by Crystal Drwenski