Turnpikes have been essential for financing vital transportation projects in Oklahoma

Southwest Ledger

By Mike W. Ray

September 2, 2025

Why does Oklahoma have turnpikes? Because in many cases that was the only way a multi-lane, high-speed, divided highway between Points A and B could be financed.

Route 66 in Oklahoma was established in 1926, when this state was just 19 years old. It was designated as U.S. Highway 66 – also known as “the Mother Road” – and extended from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California, becoming a significant east-west highway in the United States.

Route 66 was only two narrow paved lanes, each just 9 feet wide (compared to 12 feet today), Oklahoma Turnpike Authority Executive Director Joe Echelle told members of the Chickasha Rotary Club on Aug. 28.

Two decades later, major traffic wrecks were occurring along Route 66. Vehicles then had no seat belts, no lap belts, no padded dashboards, no airbags.

When Oklahoma’s first toll road – the 86-mile Turner Turnpike, a four-lane divided highway linking Oklahoma City and Tulsa – opened in 1953, only about one-third of Oklahoma’s highways were improved, Echelle said. “Most were still gravel or even dirt.”

In the wake of World War II, the State of Oklahoma “tried to sell bonds” to finance a turnpike but was unsuccessful “because the state’s credit rating wasn’t high enough.” So, the Legislature created the Turnpike Authority in 1947, authorizing it to sell bonds to finance turnpike construction and to repay the debt, with interest, from toll revenues.

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