Memorial Road should be widened to 3 lanes on each side

[SSEiYah]

I know this has been discussed in multiple threads here, not sure if there is a dedicated thread.

It seems as if with all the development lately, Memorial Road should have three thru lanes from Rockwell to Western and the turnpike should move their exits back a bit to allow for safer merging distances for folks that want to turn off these exits. A number of years ago the turnpike in this area was widened to three lanes however the exits were not changed. The traffic during rush hour and on the weekends on memorial has really gotten pretty bad.

Does the city/turnpike authority have a plan in the near future to fix this?

With Costco and Winco going in, it seems like the traffic jams on memorial are only going to get worse soon. Farther to the west on the Rockwell side with the Paycom/Farmers employees trying to leave work, it seems like it is a serious gridlock as well as the 2 lane road cannot handle a thousand or more employees with their own cars leaving at once.

[WitWhy]

Memorial does not need to be 3 lanes. What needs to be done is add turn lanes into the shopping centers and at intersections, program the stop lights so there isn't dead time without any traffic moving through the intersection and add Texas turnarounds at applicable interchanges.
Getting turning traffic out of the lanes and keeping traffic moving through intersections will make Memorial an easy and less aggravating drive.

[Plutonic Panda]

Memorial absolutely needs to be six laned and arguable 8 in between Penn and May.

[jedicurt]

Memorial absolutely needs to be six laned and arguable 8 in between Penn and May.

improving the inefficiencies in the road should be the first priority, but if this is done at the time in which they add an additional lane, i would not complain... my concern would be they add an additional lane and don't actually fix any of the inefficiencies, and it just makes the problem worse

[Plutonic Panda]

improving the inefficiencies in the road should be the first priority, but if this is done at the time in which they add an additional lane, i would not complain... my concern would be they add an additional lane and don't actually fix any of the inefficiencies, and it just makes the problem worse

I agree. Turn lanes would go a long ways. OKC seems to still be widening roads in 2019 with no turn lanes. It makes no sense.

[jedicurt]

I agree. Turn lanes would go a long ways. OKC seems to still be widening roads in 2019 with no turn lanes. It makes no sense.

yep. so if i had to choose, i would choose turn lanes and turnarounds, and other improvements over adding lanes

[Plutonic Panda]

yep. so if i had to choose, i would choose turn lanes and turnarounds, and other improvements over adding lanes

I think we should prepare for the future though as turn lanes will only increase capacity so much. At the very least with any project to add turn lanes should come with a beautification project as well as Memorial is a very ugly corridor due to the lack of landscaping or aesthetics; in doing this they should design it with making a future widening ready to go so it won’t require too much in the way of utility relocation and such.

[jedicurt]

I think we should prepare for the future though as turn lanes will only increase capacity so much. At the very least with any project to add turn lanes should come with a beautification project as well as Memorial is a very ugly corridor due to the lack of landscaping or aesthetics; in doing this they should design it with making a future widening ready to go so it won’t require too much in the way of utility relocation and such.

i'm defiantly on board with beautification.

[jn1780]

Half the problem is due to the off ramps being too close to intersections. Add an extra lane, you will have people trying to cross one more lane of traffic.

[Plutonic Panda]

Half the problem is due to the off ramps being too close to intersections. Add an extra lane, you will have people trying to cross one more lane of traffic.

The ramps need to be switched so that the exit ramps are where the entry ramps are and vice versa. This gives drivers exiting Kilpatrick more time to merge. Why the OTA hasn’t done this is beyond me. Yet it is true simple things like this, turn lanes, and Texas turn arounds would increase the road capacity without adding a single through lane.

[jn1780]

The ramps need to be switched so that the exit ramps are where the entry ramps are and vice versa. This gives drivers exiting Kilpatrick more time to merge. Why the OTA hasn’t done this is beyond me. Yet it is true simple things like this, turn lanes, and Texas turn arounds would increase the road capacity without adding a single through lane.

They dont care. It would have to be pushed and probably paid by city.

[rte66man]

The ramps need to be switched so that the exit ramps are where the entry ramps are and vice versa. This gives drivers exiting Kilpatrick more time to merge. Why the OTA hasn’t done this is beyond me. Yet it is true simple things like this, turn lanes, and Texas turn arounds would increase the road capacity without adding a single through lane.

They dont care. It would have to be pushed and probably paid by city.

Because that would cost $100 million or more just for the stretch west from Broadway Extension to the Hefner Parkway. OTA is pretty maxed out on bond capacity for some time because of Driving Forward. Also, I doubt there is much interest at OTA for doing this.

[Plutonic Panda]

Because that would cost $100 million or more just for the stretch west from Broadway Extension to the Hefner Parkway. OTA is pretty maxed out on bond capacity for some time because of Driving Forward. Also, I doubt there is much interest at OTA for doing this.

It certainly wouldn’t cost anywhere near that much for the OTA to just realign the ramps. They’re building a brand new 20 mile corridor for 300 million dollars. I bet it costs 20 million tops to realign the ramps.

As for the OKC project, just adding turn lanes and Texas turnarounds wouldn’t be 100 million. My guess would be half that but I’m not sure. I just don’t think it would be 100 million to do that.

Widening the road and going all in, yeah I could see a price range somewhere in 100-150 million for everything and IMO, it would be well worth it.

Is there any word on how long it will take them to pay off those bonds? The ramp project should be small enough to where they could pay for it with toll revenue that isn’t used to pay off the bonds. I assume once all of the 3 new turnpikes open they will recover their money faster.

On a side note I am anxious to see what their next round of projects will be.

[bombermwc]

Half the problem is due to the off ramps being too close to intersections. Add an extra lane, you will have people trying to cross one more lane of traffic.

Absolutely. And keep in mind that the turn lanes have the same result. 240 is a good example of what can be done, but how it causes the runners across all lanes. There are turnarounds at each section between May and 35 as well as right hand turn lanes. So you end up with 5 lanes that an exit ramp person crosses to turn right. They have about 1/8 mile to do it, but those cars are in the blind spots of most vehicles because of the angle so it's VERY precarious switching between looking what's in front of you and what's behind/beside you as they jet across. Not to mention that the west bound May exit on 240 gets backed up for 1/4 to 1/2 mile with the frontage road being worse. So imagine the fun that those lane crossers cause/experience going through that mess.

Memorial is far from unique in the city and isn't nearly as bad as people try to make it out to be. They just dont have perspective on what it's like in other areas of town that are far worse. Ever tried to go north on Sooner/240 in the morning? Try sitting in stop and go for a full mile. And with the Heart Hospital putting in their own light, that will get worse. I've never seen anything on Memorial be backed up to the next mile intersection regularly.

[MagzOK]

I've never seen anything on Memorial be backed up to the next mile intersection regularly.

Memorial at May, Penn, and Western are backed up just about a mile back each afternoon rush hour and is terrible to navigate. Having lived in the Dallas area for years and navigating that traffic, I think that a few simple traffic light adjustments could make a world of a difference at these and other intersections all across the city.

[Plutonic Panda]

Memorial at May, Penn, and Western are backed up just about a mile back each afternoon rush hour and is terrible to navigate. Having lived in the Dallas area for years and navigating that traffic, I think that a few simple traffic light adjustments could make a world of a difference at these and other intersections all across the city.

I’m not sure how often it occurs(I’ll take your word for it), but last time I was in Oklahoma a couple months ago I saw traffic backed up for about a mile or so on the EB lanes of Memorial west of Penn. That is the first time I’ve ever seen traffic backed up like that anywhere in Oklahoma and I saw it happen multiple times when I was there.

I do agree some modest improvements could go a long way.

[okatty]

Am i crazy or did they paint the Texas turn around arrows the wrong way on Memorial at Penn heading Eastbound? I swear they are the wrong direction...LOL

[Zorba]

I agree. Turn lanes would go a long ways. OKC seems to still be widening roads in 2019 with no turn lanes. It makes no sense.

Yes, this drives me nuts. A lot of times a 3 lane road (full length turn lane) is less frustrating to drive on than a 4 lane road. The Tulsa area stopped this adding roads without turn lanes in the late 90s, but OKC is still putting 4 lane roads in the middle of no where with no turn lanes. Not even at some lighted intersections, and forget about right turn lanes at intersections.

Memorial could be massively fixed by fixing the on/off ramps, adding Texas U-Turns, adding on/off ramps at each crossing road (Santa Fe, Kelly, Bryant), adding right turn lanes into shopping centers. Slapping on more lanes is a band-aid that won't really fix much until the on/off ramps are addressed.

[Zorba]

The ramps need to be switched so that the exit ramps are where the entry ramps are and vice versa. This gives drivers exiting Kilpatrick more time to merge. Why the OTA hasn’t done this is beyond me. Yet it is true simple things like this, turn lanes, and Texas turn arounds would increase the road capacity without adding a single through lane.

OTA doesn't care. Remember, OTA wants roads to pay for themselves, it is not ODOT that wants to build good infrastructure and doesn't require ROI on their projects. OTA would look at it, see a $20M price tag, bonded at 4%/yr for 30 years. Then they say "will these changes bring in at least 40M additional trips over 30 years to the turnpike? Nope? Done." When OTA took over the Gilcrease Expressway they deleted nearly every on/off ramp saying they wouldn't pay for themselves at a cost of $1M. I believe the city ponied up the money to get a couple added.

This is why we still only have half an interchange between Hefner Parkway and the turnpike.

The pro about OTA is they can and will build roads long before ODOT can get financing to do it, and a lot of times due to bonding and their concern over cost of operation they build the actual roads better.

[OKC Guy]

Problem is growing further west on Memorial between Council/Rockwell. Just wait til Wal Mart builds out Deer Crest plus Paycom still growing plus other businesses.

Neighbors fed up with Paycom traffic

NEWS
by: Taylor Adams
Posted: Feb 4, 2020 / 10:27 PM CST / Updated: Feb 4, 2020 / 10:27 PM CST

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Traffic around the Paycom headquarters in Oklahoma City is causing traffic hang ups.

“It’s just chaos. Every single day,” says Lindsey Lee, who lives nearby.

“I’m literally having to change my life around their traffic issue,” says Keifer Hamlin, who also lives nearby.

https://kfor.com/news/neighbors-fed-...aycom-traffic/

[rte66man]

Yes, this drives me nuts. A lot of times a 3 lane road (full length turn lane) is less frustrating to drive on than a 4 lane road. The Tulsa area stopped this adding roads without turn lanes in the late 90s, but OKC is still putting 4 lane roads in the middle of no where with no turn lanes. Not even at some lighted intersections, and forget about right turn lanes at intersections.

Memorial could be massively fixed by fixing the on/off ramps, adding Texas U-Turns, adding on/off ramps at each crossing road (Santa Fe, Kelly, Bryant), adding right turn lanes into shopping centers. Slapping on more lanes is a band-aid that won't really fix much until the on/off ramps are addressed.

Funny you mention adding new on/off ramps. OTA has a project listed that will move the Santa Fe toll plaza further west. I'm hoping that will allow for them to remedy the terrible WB entrance ramp from US77. They made the curvature so sharp it is almost impossible to get up to merging speed. Maybe Acme wouldn't sel them the ROW?

[Teo9969]

Problem is growing further west on Memorial between Council/Rockwell. Just wait til Wal Mart builds out Deer Crest plus Paycom still growing plus other businesses.

Neighbors fed up with Paycom traffic

NEWS
by: Taylor Adams
Posted: Feb 4, 2020 / 10:27 PM CST / Updated: Feb 4, 2020 / 10:27 PM CST

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Traffic around the Paycom headquarters in Oklahoma City is causing traffic hang ups.

“It’s just chaos. Every single day,” says Lindsey Lee, who lives nearby.

“I’m literally having to change my life around their traffic issue,” says Keifer Hamlin, who also lives nearby.

https://kfor.com/news/neighbors-fed-...aycom-traffic/

I live a mile south off Chesapeake off Western. Back in there boom days, trying to turn left from 4Xth onto Western could easily be a 10 minute affair.

Welcome, Miss Lee, Mr. Hamlin, to a big league city...

[Zorba]

Funny you mention adding new on/off ramps. OTA has a project listed that will move the Santa Fe toll plaza further west. I'm hoping that will allow for them to remedy the terrible WB entrance ramp from US77. They made the curvature so sharp it is almost impossible to get up to merging speed. Maybe Acme wouldn't sel them the ROW?

That's interesting. Do you have a link? Hopefully they'll add ramps at Santa Fe.

This is an issue with OTA in general though. They make their decisions based on return on investment, not creating the best infrastructure. So if a ramp won't give them as much payback as they want, it doesn't go in. I'm sure they assume they aren't losing much traffic due to the lack of ramps, and to hell with the surface street issues it creates.

[jedicurt]

i live a mile south off chesapeake off western. Back in there boom days, trying to turn left from 4xth onto western could easily be a 10 minute affair.

Welcome, miss lee, mr. Hamlin, to a big league city...

this!!!!!!

[jn1780]

That's interesting. Do you have a link? Hopefully they'll add ramps at Santa Fe.

This is an issue with OTA in general though. They make their decisions based on return on investment, not creating the best infrastructure. So if a ramp won't give them as much payback as they want, it doesn't go in. I'm sure they assume they aren't losing much traffic due to the lack of ramps, and to hell with the surface street issues it creates.

I see that project listed here, but it seems like the main objective is to modernize equipment and safety features. It doesn't appear things are being moved over by that much. https://pikepass.com/Engineering/Pro...ormation.aspx#