View Full Version : Memorial Road..the worst quality of pavement in the metro!



JOHNINSOKC
08-27-2011, 02:01 PM
I was driving down Memorial Road on Thursday heading west from the Broadway Extension to Rockwell, and I must say, what a TERRIBLE road. Forget about traffic, this stretch needs a serious repaving AND widening! It baffles me that an arterial that is so well-known, and has lots of growth along it, should be in such disrepair. Anyone agree with me? I had to weave around tons of potholes and patches that were at least an inch above the rest of the pavement. Hope we aren't taking business prospects down this stretch....how embarrassing!!!

MustangGT
08-27-2011, 02:47 PM
Sadly where it parallels the turnpike you probably will never see any widening due to business encroachment and frequently changing federal/state/local requirements.

MikeOKC
08-27-2011, 03:26 PM
I was driving down Memorial Road on Thursday heading west from the Broadway Extension to Rockwell, and I must say, what a TERRIBLE road. Forget about traffic, this stretch needs a serious repaving AND widening! It baffles me that an arterial that is so well-known, and has lots of growth along it, should be in such disrepair. Anyone agree with me? I had to weave around tons of potholes and patches that were at least an inch above the rest of the pavement. Hope we aren't taking business prospects down this stretch....how embarrassing!!!

It's sure bad east of Western, but all the way to Rockwell? The worst pavement in the metro? I think that might be pushing it.

Snowman
08-28-2011, 06:32 AM
I was driving down Memorial Road on Thursday heading west from the Broadway Extension to Rockwell, and I must say, what a TERRIBLE road. Forget about traffic, this stretch needs a serious repaving AND widening! It baffles me that an arterial that is so well-known, and has lots of growth along it, should be in such disrepair. Anyone agree with me? I had to weave around tons of potholes and patches that were at least an inch above the rest of the pavement. Hope we aren't taking business prospects down this stretch....how embarrassing!!!

I hope you mean just a slight widening for the individual lanes. It is not really an arterial anymore in that area, it is a distributor from a interstates to the city grid and back, through traffic certainly does not support having more lanes. Their is a far better quality option for you to take from Broadway Extension to Rockwell in the area, it just has a toll so no money should be spent by the city to add additional lanes. Memorial is around thirty years old and having heavier than most road traffic over the life span is ready for major surface work but some of the similar city streets are over 50 years old. From Western to i35 it's bigger issue is all the semi traffic will have caused even faster deterioration since it was not planned for that kind of load frequency.

Thunder
08-28-2011, 06:56 AM
It is bad. I went out to Quail Spring Mall by getting on Memorial Road off of I-35 and the entire stretch is poor.

RadicalModerate
08-28-2011, 07:10 AM
What's REALLY bad about Memorial Road is the way that it floods (especially between Portland/The Parkway) and Meridian. Remember? When it rains around here . . . ?

Not to mention the mysterious force it seems to possess that drives restaurants out of business.

bombermwc
08-29-2011, 06:53 AM
Try using the 240 frontage roads some time. It's one large pothole and warped pavement crapfest.

SSEiYah
08-30-2011, 09:38 AM
It is bad from Broadway Extension to Penn, lots of truck traffic which kills the asphalt quick. They should have used concrete.

What about Penn and 164th ish to 179th ish? Wow.

pw405
09-08-2011, 10:28 AM
I think the southside of okc has the worst roads. Specific examples escape me, but the 240 corridor is awful.

venture
09-08-2011, 11:14 PM
Just got back from being back east...the roads here are nothing like the bankrupt cities back there. Indiana has to have the worst highways in the nation and the city streets are even worse. Not saying we don't have some down right terrible roads here, but it could always be worse. 90% of our roads could be falling apart.

White Peacock
09-09-2011, 08:25 AM
I remember reading an article a few years ago in which it was stated that Oklahoma is near the bottom of the list when it comes to overall road quality.

The worst part of Memorial isn't the pavement; it's traffic at the intersection where it meets the Hefner Parkway/Portland. It's one of the most dangerous intersections in the city.

bombermwc
09-09-2011, 08:57 AM
The folks up on memorial also live in an alternate state of reality. Next time you complain about it, try taking a look at 240. May and Penn will have almost a mile of cars backed up on the highway for the offramps. If you're on the frontage road, it can take as long as 10 minutes to get through the light...then on to the next one. All the while the pavement is one big lump of craked, shifted, and hole-ridden asphalt. 240 is waaaay worse than memorial folks...sorry. Just because it's in a less pricey part of town doesnt make it less of an issue.

White Peacock
09-09-2011, 09:32 AM
Indeed; everything's worse on the Southside.

JOHNINSOKC
09-09-2011, 10:38 AM
Actually..it depends on what part of the southside you are talking about. I know that S. Penn from I-240 to S.W. 89th was just recently repaved and I-240 itself is getting repaved also. The only area south of 240 that I KNOW needs a serious repaving is Western from 240 to 119th street. I still say the Memorial Road is worse than S. Western.

JayhawkTransplant
09-09-2011, 10:51 AM
I'll add to the complaint party: the railroad crossing on Memorial between Broadway Extension and Lincoln is pretty bad. I feel like I need to get an alignment whenever I do anything more than 15 mph over it. I work just west of that crossing, so I have to go over it at least twice per day. I wish it could be smoother, like the other crossings in the area.

rizzo
10-26-2011, 08:48 AM
Memorial from Western to the east is horrible until you cross the RR tracks. The tracks have been bad for as long as I can remember. They did fix them along time ago, but they are back to what I consider their normal condition. :whiteflag

MDot
10-26-2011, 09:25 AM
Memorial from Western to the east is horrible until you cross the RR tracks. The tracks have been bad for as long as I can remember. They did fix them along time ago, but they are back to what I consider their normal condition. :whiteflag

I've noticed that Oklahoma City tends to have the old time shathole when it comes to RR crossings and tracks in most parts of the city.

bombermwc
10-27-2011, 06:52 AM
AMEN - and everywhere they try to fix them (like 240/Sooner), they make it far worse than it was before. Now that one's a freaking jump ramp!!!!

MDot
10-27-2011, 11:00 AM
AMEN - and everywhere they try to fix them (like 240/Sooner), they make it far worse than it was before. Now that one's a freaking jump ramp!!!!

Especially that one. I was driving behind someone one time and they had a trailer on the back of their truck and when they went over the Sooner Rd crossing, their trailer literally shot up about 4 ft in the air.

jonno
10-30-2011, 08:47 PM
Not the full extent of Memorial that the original poster was complaining about but maybe this will help the situation. This project will be on the ODOT November letting and will probably be awarded in early December. The extents are from Western Ave. proceeding east 1.7 miles to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe RR tracks.

http://www.okladot.state.ok.us/contracts/a2011/plans1111/300_1711_stp-155a(870)_2854104/A%20FULL%20FILE.pdf