The Journal Record
By Associated Press
Posted: 10:29 PM Wednesday, April 20, 2011
State’s bridge, road picture looking better
The Norman Transcript, April 20
It all started on Memorial Day weekend in 2002. An errant river barge slammed into an Interstate 40 bridge support, collapsing a section of the highway and killing 14 drivers and passengers.
When 20,000 cars a day were rerouted onto a structurally unsafe highway bridge, state officials decided it was time to begin rebuilding and replacing hundreds of bridges and highway sections.
It was a wake-up call for lawmakers. They responded, too, with a massive multimillion-dollar, multiyear plan to upgrade our transportation infrastructure. Today, a Washington-based industry organization says Oklahoma has reduced the number of structurally deficient, state-maintained bridges by 32 percent. The numbers have been reduced from 1,168 in 2005 to 797 in 2010... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Wed, April 20, 2011
by John Cox