Restore T.R.U.S.T.

By Aaron Wright, editor
MidWest City - The Sun

Residents who travel the old bridge on Britton Road will see their paths detoured beginning within the next week.

County Commissioner Willa Johnson’s office is pairing with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the state of Oklahoma to replace the current bridge structure.

The project is expected to last about 215 days, with the possibility of extensions based on weather conditions. Craig Wallace, superintendent for Oklahoma County’s district 1, said he expects a section of Britton Road near the bridge to be closed for the entirety of the project.

A detour has been set up that will take drivers south on Indian Meridian to Wilshire Boulevard and then back up to Britton Road via either Choctaw Road or Hiwassee Road.

The money for the bridge replacement is coming from the Oklahoma County Improvement for Roads and Bridges Program. The project will pay for the replacement of extraordinary bridges and corridor roads.

Wallace said this project really meets both the criteria as Britton Road has become a corridor road over the years.

He also said the bridge, which is over 376 feet long, when created was engineered as a fracture-critical bridge. Basically, Wallace explained, if any substructure of the bridge fails, the whole bridge will fail. It’s not a good scenario for a bridge that about 2,000 people cross on a daily basis.

The new bridge will be a concrete beam structure that will be 32-feet wide and be able to handle more than 25 tons of weight.

The old bridge will become property of the contractor.

Wallace also reported that the county is continuing to work on the intersection at 36th Street and Douglas Boulevard in Spencer. He expects the next phase, the replacement of the bridge structure on Douglas Boulevard, to be complete by the first of the year, pending weather issues.

Just recently, the county received over $2 million to overlay six and a quarter miles in Oklahoma county and eight miles in Oklahoma City areas that fall in Eastern Oklahoma County.

“Things are really happening in Eastern Oklahoma County,” said Wallace.