OKC Boulevard

[Urban Pioneer]

The Oklahoman is reporting that the contractor will receive a $500,000 bonus for finishing 50 days early:



Contractor to get $500K bonus for Oklahoma City Boulevard

WOW. Well, I guess that answers some questions!

[Urban Pioneer]

It really is the worst of the worst, and to think, it could have been worse.

Yep.

[Rover]

Jim Couch was verbally instructed to back ODOT all the way

By who?

[gopokes88]

Ahahahahha of course

[OKCbyTRANSFER]

The intersection with Klein is horrendous. Cars darting out to cross and the homeless folks trying to navigate through on foot with shopping carts. Driver in front of me almost hit someone crossing at a slow pace.

[Urban Pioneer]

By who?

By some key business and property owners with direct access to the boulevard.

[Rover]

By some key business and property owners with direct access to the boulevard.

Name names. If they are bullies, as you suggest, then they need to be publicly outed. Just saying somebody said something does nothing. WHO are they? We either need to fight what we claim is injustice or just admit we are afraid to,

And the Gazette needs to do in depth expose on the inner workings of city and state decision making by citing verifiable facts with details, names and witnesses willing to speak out.

[jerrywall]

My little gripe with all of this, on top of everything else, is that California now dead ends before Classen. I was hoping that was temporary, but guess not. So now all traffic from this area that needs to go onto Classen has to route onto Sheridan. Folks going to the Jones Assembly park along Fred Jones Ave making it essentially a narrow, one lane street (since they fill up both sides), so that bottlenecks, and then the bottleneck at Sheridan and Classen (which will hopefully improve with lights), and on top of that, the Fred Jones folks regularly end up blocking traffic on Sheridan with the line of cars using Valet, so it turns it into a real cluster some afternoons/evenings. I'm not sure why California couldn't have continued to feed onto Classen, even if was only onto Northbound Classen.

One they have the underpass opened again, folks can go down Shartel to Reno, and then get back to Classen that way, but that's also going to be full of BLVD traffic, so not sure how that will work out.

Getting in and out of Film Row hasn't been pleasant, to say the least, and much worse with all the construction, and rather than with an end in sight to look forward to, it's now looking to just be the more normal status quo.

[Roger S]

Getting in and out of Film Row hasn't been pleasant, to say the least, and much worse with all the construction, and rather than with an end in sight to look forward to, it's now looking to just be the more normal status quo.

Hate to give this little secret away but if those people still trying to use Sheridan to get to Klein and get on the Boulevard would just go 2 blocks south to Reno..... Problem pretty much solved..... Of course that might make it more difficult for me to cross Reno at Shartel until they move the crane out of the street at Lee and Sheridan.

I don't think most people realize that Reno isn't still reduced to two lanes.

[gopokes88]

#Maps4Boulevard

Do it right this time

[shawnw]

#Maps4Boulevard

Do it right this time

well, there was just someone wanting to spend another billion on roads so okay I guess, but just one road

[Urban Pioneer]

Name names. If they are bullies, as you suggest, then they need to be publicly outed. Just saying somebody said something does nothing. WHO are they? We either need to fight what we claim is injustice or just admit we are afraid to,

And the Gazette needs to do in depth expose on the inner workings of city and state decision making by citing verifiable facts with details, names and witnesses willing to speak out.

I'm quite sure that Jim Couch wasn't bullied. lol. This was just business as usual making sure that the "stakeholders" opinions about what was prioritized and how these priorities were represented within the city government was incorporated into the design. My observations about this were broadly addressed in public meetings and the personal comments made to me about this probably won't be corroborated. He was arguably doing his job even though I disagreed with the scale that was ultimately demanded. Common sense did not win out on this road design.

[TheTravellers]

Name names. If they are bullies, as you suggest, then they need to be publicly outed. Just saying somebody said something does nothing. WHO are they? We either need to fight what we claim is injustice or just admit we are afraid to,

And the Gazette needs to do in depth expose on the inner workings of city and state decision making by citing verifiable facts with details, names and witnesses willing to speak out.

Since he won't, I'll give it a shot, knowing nothing about this particular behind-the-scenes shenanigan - probably Nichols, Hamm, and some other O&G execs, the usual power brokers in OKC.

[Rover]

Since he won't, I'll give it a shot, knowing nothing about this particular behind-the-scenes shenanigan - probably Nichols, Hamm, and some other O&G execs, the usual power brokers in OKC.

No...name names of who said it and who heard them. It is easy to speculate and make unsympathetic targets out of people. It is responsible to report facts and not innuendos or gossip.

BTW, advocating for your business, your employees, or your constituents is not wrong. Bullying is. Blackmailing is. Stealing is. Spreading false rumors is.

[David]

Spreading false rumors is.

This statement contains an assumption.

Edit: At least, it does if it is intended as a swipe against what Urban Pioneer has been saying. If not then the assumptions are on my end.

[TheTravellers]

No...name names of who said it and who heard them. It is easy to speculate and make unsympathetic targets out of people. It is responsible to report facts and not innuendos or gossip.

BTW, advocating for your business, your employees, or your constituents is not wrong. Bullying is. Blackmailing is. Stealing is. Spreading false rumors is.

I'm not the one you should be directing this to, I have no info of that sort, reply to UP's post and ask him again. I just know that in the past, the people I named have influenced all kinds of stupid sh*t that the city has done.

[Urban Pioneer]

I’m not going to name individual names of people or corporations for the sake of some blog and open myself and my family up to some sort of liability. I worked on the Boulevard issue for nearly ten years. It was asserted in previous posts that influence was exerted by these entities and that is why the OKC Boulevard was designed the way it was. That was an oversimplification of the matter. They did have influence but the origins of the bad design weren’t them until further along in the process. They helped ensure that the roadway was more of a bypass and less of a boulevard. However, that influence happened fairly late in the overall history. I am turning over all of my files to the OKC Historical Society at their request. Others can judge and open themselves to libel if there’s merit in pursuing accountability beyond the malfeasance on the highway department and former leaders who no longer hold these positions.

[Rover]

I’m not going to name individual names of people or corporations for the sake of some blog and open myself and my family up to some sort of liability. I worked on the Boulevard issue for nearly ten years. It was asserted in previous posts that influence was exerted by these entities and that is why the OKC Boulevard was designed the way it was. That was an oversimplification of the matter. They did have influence but the origins of the bad design weren’t them until further along in the process. They helped ensure that the roadway was more of a bypass and less of a boulevard. However, that influence happened fairly late in the overall history. I am turning over all of my files to the OKC Historical Society at their request. Others can judge and open themselves to libel if there’s merit in pursuing accountability beyond the malfeasance on the highway department and former leaders who no longer hold these positions.

Truth isn’t libel. Reporting something you heard first hand isn’t libel. However, repeating what someone else told you without first hand knowledge is heresay and problematic. That’s why we need the Gazette to interview you and the persons who were involved to report the facts. Everyone talks about how these people are bad and work against public interests, but no one names names and recounts actual facts. There seems to be actionable intel here so we need journalists to dig it all out and present it to the public.

[Pete]

Looks like the big dig at Western and Reno is just about finished; but no traffic lights so not sure what they are going to do about that.

[Laramie]

Looks like the big dig at Western and Reno is just about finished; but no traffic lights so not sure what they are going to do about that.

This should open up the boulevard for a good free flow traffic movement...

[OkiePoke]

You know what they will do, stop signs!

[OKCbyTRANSFER]

You know what they will do, stop signs!

And "no left turn" signs

[Jeepnokc]

It appears that the n left turn sign will remain at western eastbound at Reno. You have to drive by Reno and then go left (north) on Shartel for about 70 ft and then turn east onto Reno. So instead of putting in a left turn light at the intersection of two very bust streets....the traffic they are worried about backing up at Reno can back up at Shartel into the intersection.

[Pete]

The work on Reno at the Western intersection is over and you can now take Western from I-40 in and out of west downtown.

Of course there is still no stoplight, just 4 temp stop signs.

[Jeepnokc]

The work on Reno at the Western intersection is over and you can now take Western from I-40 in and out of west downtown.

Of course there is still no stoplight, just 4 temp stop signs.

and the no left hand turn signs