OKC Boulevard

[mugofbeer]

As a reminder we even had an OKCTalk user do some mock up renderings of his vision for the Boulevard which was pretty cool:





Which you see more here: https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.p...500#post548500

Again I don’t mean to beat a dead horse here but I saw that proposal for College Station and it immediately made me think of the OKC Boulevard and how Oklahoma’s largest city ended up with a rural highway design replacing an elevated freeway through its downtown yet some small town in Texas gets that.

I do love those renderings. I could see a roundabout with one of those old fashioned oil derricks in the middle. One of the local companies could even buy their logo on it.

[Pete]

The city is planning to add a traffic signal at Harvey and finally open up that stretch of road:

[catcherinthewry]

I was by there today. The signals are already up, but the lights have bags over them. They could get them running by the end of the day if they wanted to.

[shawnw]

Oh good, that's probably why there were digging around there, was worried it was site prep related and that we'd lose Harvey. I wonder if the streetcar will have signal prioritization there out of the gate.

[shawnw]

[onthestrip]

It really is completely unnecessary, the low traffic counts prove that. Its a shame because it takes up so much space that could be developed and contribute to the area and add to ad valorem taxes. Its also a joke when police set up on the west end of it where its effectively a 60mph highway with on/off ramps but only 45mph speed limit. Not to mention all the crazy intersections once it gets to shartel and on eastward.

[Pete]

It's a huge barrier between west downtown and the Farmer's Market area.

[Ross MacLochness]

When I saw that this thread had new comments, I was hoping it was because someone posted that video!

[GoGators]

The city paying to rip this thing out would be money well spent.

[BoulderSooner]

It's a huge barrier between west downtown and the Farmer's Market area.

there was 0 reason to close off that access and not make that a 5 way intersection

[Pete]

^

The other negative part of that construction was to sever the tie from Farmer's Market to the Stockyards.

[jn1780]

The city paying to rip this thing out would be money well spent.

Well eventually those 3 recycled I-40 bridges will need to be replaced so maybe that would be the perfect opportunity to get the west part demolished.

[golden_gatorcane]

Is it necessary to get rid of the whole OKC Boulevard, or is the criticism primarily for the western portion with overpasses? The eastern portion adjacent to Scissortail/Paycom seems fine and aligns with the grid. One future route I could see is to align the Boulevard west of Walker Ave to be over what is now SW 3rd St and then have it link into Exchange Ave--although I do like that drawing of the roundabout.

Guess what happens in the future could depend on if/when Strawberry Fields develops and its level of success in spurring development west of it, as too much growth would begin to lock in more of the Boulevard to its current position.

[David]

The western portion starting with Scissortail and going at least over to the Classen overpass needs to be reworked or possibly just torn out entirely. Maybe leave the silly curviness as is and turn the Classen overpass into the traffic circle with Western that was proposed way back when.

[Dob Hooligan]

I use the Boulevard to get from Bricktown area to NW OKC. Works great. Don't understand why people don't like it.

[Mississippi Blues]

If you do want to understand why those closer than NW OKC don’t particularly care for the western section of the boulevard, there’s a 4:10 video a few posts above yours that touches on that a little.