August 12, 2010
Muskogee Phoenix
— A $4.3 billion plan to improve or replace hundreds of bridges and highways across the state over the next eight years was adopted Tuesday by the Oklahoma Transportation Commission.
To quote terran marine Tychus Findlay, a fictional character from the video game Starcraft, “It’s about time!”
It’s long overdue, and has mostly been ignored by the Legislature for far too long.
On every major roadway into Oklahoma, the difference of highway maintenance between the state you’re leaving and ours is immediately noticeable.
The Transportation Department estimated more than 3,000 miles of Oklahoma’s 12,266 miles of highways — about 25 percent — were inadequate and in need of improvement or replacement and about one-third of Oklahoma’s driving surfaces, about 4,300 miles, were in poor condition.
In 2002, The Road Information Program, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit group that promotes policies that improve roads and bridges, reported that Oklahoma had the highest percentage of deficient bridges in the nation, with one-third of bridges 20 feet or longer in need of repair or replacement... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Thu, August 12, 2010
by Crystal Drwenski