I-235 / I-44 Interchange

[Swalell1960]

Nice shots! It’s fun driving through there!

I wonder what the thinking is behind the cul de sac turnaround on the frontage road?

[Pete]

I wonder what the thinking is behind the cul de sac turnaround on the frontage road?

That's Santa Fe and there was a plan a long time ago to build a bridge over I-44 and connect with Santa Fe on the south side of the interstate.

That seems dead but I suppose it could be revived at a later date. In the meantime, it serves as a turnaround for emergency vehicles.

[Plutonic Panda]

That's Santa Fe and there was a plan a long time ago to build a bridge over I-44 and connect with Santa Fe on the south side of the interstate.

That seems dead but I suppose it could be revived at a later date. In the meantime, it serves as a turnaround for emergency vehicles.

Hopefully that is the case, and they don’t allow private development on it, which would prohibit that bridge to be built in the future.

[David]

It really is a shame we didn't get that Santa Fe bridge, it would have been nice for reconnecting local traffic.

[Pete]

Bringing this forward.

[Plutonic Panda]

It really is a shame we didn't get that Santa Fe bridge, it would have been nice for reconnecting local traffic.

Hopefully it gets built in the future.

[therhett17]

I wonder if they're ever going to fix the streetlights through here... they worked for a little bit after the interchange opened and have been dead ever since. Only a couple of the tower lights work, that's all. 90% of the lights have been out for over a year now.

[TheTravellers]

I wonder if they're ever going to fix the streetlights through here... they worked for a little bit after the interchange opened and have been dead ever since. Only a couple of the tower lights work, that's all. 90% of the lights have been out for over a year now.

Have you reported them through the Action Center?

[therhett17]

Have you reported them through the Action Center?

No I didn't know such a thing existed. Thanks for the info. Although with as long as they've been out, surely someone with authority over them has noticed.

[TheTravellers]

No I didn't know such a thing existed. Thanks for the info. Although with as long as they've been out, surely someone with authority over them has noticed.

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, there's a loooooooong history of OG&E/OKC passing the buck on lights in locations like this (for a decade, at least), and they finally agreed that any lights out on highways could still be reported through the Action Center and they'd pass it on to OG&E. You can find the Action Center here, they're pretty responsive - https://www.okc.gov/residents/action-center/report

And yes, for *years* we've wondered why OKC workers just don't report lights out when they're out there doing their jobs ("Not my job", I'm guessing) or they don't just have somebody drive through the city and drop pins on a map when they see lights out. Just one more fail in the beautification/maintenance history of OKC.

[RodH]

This interchange is still a construction zone.

[SEMIweather]

I still can't believe they worked on this interchange for nearly a decade, only for the merge area from NB 235 --> WB 44 to be approximately 100 feet in length. Still an improvement over the cloverleaf, but ultimately feels like a letdown.

[rte66man]

I still can't believe they worked on this interchange for nearly a decade, only for the merge area from NB 235 --> WB 44 to be approximately 100 feet in length. Still an improvement over the cloverleaf, but ultimately feels like a letdown.

Too lazy to look up my post but I was upset 6 or 7 years ago about this exact thing.

Plus the SB 235 to WB 44 ramp (the first stage built) is already falling apart and has done so for at least 5 years. ODOT fixed some of the issues but the vertical cracks are still there.

[ChaseDweller]

Too lazy to look up my post but I was upset 6 or 7 years ago about this exact thing.

Plus the SB 235 to WB 44 ramp (the first stage built) is already falling apart and has done so for at least 5 years. ODOT fixed some of the issues but the vertical cracks are still there.

The cross merge area on the new Lincoln connector where you choose to go WB44 or NB235 is also woefully short. Going to be a problem in high traffic times.