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LAWTON - A Waurika
Lake road is getting almost $900,000 in federal stimulus money. Almost
$800,000 of that will be used to replace old and rotten wooden posts
that connect guard rails next to the lake. Officials said there have
been some repairs over the years but never a complete refurbishment of
the posts. They said that makes this a very ambitious project.
Lake
officials said there's probably at least 11,000 feet worth of work to
be done, and they'll put in those new posts about five feet apart. The
lake manager told 7NEWS the posts were built in the 70's and if a
vehicle ran into them it could have disastrous results.
Lake
Manager Louie Holmstead said hundreds of thousands of people visit the
lake each year, and as the traffic increases, so does the possibility
of wrecks. "If that embankment guardrail was to fail the vehicle could
flip over and roll down the side of the embankment," said Holmstead.
Holmstead
said many of the rails on the upstream side have already been replaced
with steel posts. This stimulus money will help them replace all the
wooden posts on the downstream side as well. "We wanted to replace
everything with steel and have composite blackouts which will put the
guard rails in compliance with ODOT specifications."
The
Oklahoma Department of Transportation has those specifications for a
reason. As technology has improved, so has ODOT's expectations of
safety. "Infastructure as it ages it becomes more susceptible to not
function as it should," said Homestead.
After working for the
lake for 15-years, Holmstead is happy to see the safety of his
customers improving. "Our district commander has put public safety as a
top priority."
Lake officials couldn't give a specific date of
when the money will come in, because right now they're still working on
getting all the paperwork done. But, they said once they get the money
it will be just a matter of weeks before work is started.
Holmstead
said the remaining 100-thousand dollars in federal stimulus money will
go toward a study that will tell lake officials how much water the lake
can handle during a flood.