Interstate from OKC to Denver?

[Platemaker]

http://www.interstate-guide.com/future.html

Looks like there are talks of an Interstate 31 Wichita-Lincoln-Sioux City.... so we'd have straight line to Omaha.

[Jersey Boss]

With the shape I-40 is in, and the lack of funds to even have appealing rest areas, I think the idea of new interstates is crazy.

[kevinpate]

With the shape I-40 is in, and the lack of funds to even have appealing rest areas, I think the idea of new interstates is crazy.

That's a this state thang, for whatever reason or non-reason the deciders chose to rely upon. The lack of effort within our borders is not what I see when I drive elsewhere.

[Bill Robertson]

http://www.interstate-guide.com/future.html

Looks like there are talks of an Interstate 31 Wichita-Lincoln-Sioux City.... so we'd have straight line to Omaha.

What's in Omaha?

[kevinpate]

What's in Omaha?

Pig Pen, or at least he was the last time the Duck talked to him.

[Barry Luxton]

Pig Pen, or at least he was the last time the Duck talked to him.

"I'll take 'Ancient Pop Culture References' for $1200, Alex."

[kevinpate]

Well, pop culture would be the wrong cat but yeah it is semi ancient (pun intended.)

It's from a 70's country tune, Convoy, by CW. McCall.

[Martin]

the thing that blows my mind about 'convoy' is that chip davis of mannheim steamroller wrote the music. oh... and if i get that tune stuck in my head, i'm holding kevinpate personally responsible. -M

[ou48A]

the thing that blows my mind about 'convoy' is that chip davis of mannheim steamroller wrote the music. oh... and if i get that tune stuck in my head, i'm holding kevinpate personally responsible. -M

The Convoy song was once used as the theme for OSU football one year back in the 70’s.
It was a Jimmy Johnson and OSU creation that gives me a good chuckle anytime I’m reminded of that song.

[kevinpate]

Sorry to steer the thread onto an access road, but dang, I've been sitting here thinking of several old narrative 'songs' from that era. Sigh, I sure miss Tom T Hall. He was a good one.

[Chicken In The Rough]

Could a new highway between OKC and Denver be a possibility under the new infrastructure bill? This has been a missing link in our interstate highway system for generations.

[Plutonic Panda]

Had a long conversation about it on AARoads forum as well. Yes and interstate from OKC pointing NW to Denver would be a God send. I bet it would get even more use if connected to a new road from OKC to Texarkana connecting to I-49. This would allow New Orleans and Dallas to also utilize such a route.

[mugofbeer]

Number One. Make it so........ l'd certainly love it!

[Thomas Vu]

Is 420 already taken/

[mugofbeer]

Really, l'd be happy with a SH 3 NW Hiway extension towards Watonga and faster ways around Woodward and Guymon.

[Scott5114]

It would make a lot of sense, but as far as I know nobody at the official level is talking about it.

It's important to understand that the Nixon administration phased out federal-level planning of the road network in favor of a block-grant model. That is, rather than giving money to build specific Federal Aid highway corridors, FHWA writes the state DOTs a check and the state is responsible for deciding where they want to spend that money. Some "high priority corridors" are granted special funding through earmarks, but this is done on the initiative of Congress. There is, of course, no guarantee that Congressionally-earmarked highways are well thought out or necessary—for instance, look at the new Interstate 69, which is useful at its beginning and end but has a long section in the middle that's redundant to existing highways, and at its south end becomes such a mess that there are three Interstate 69s running parallel to each other because a Congressman was just writing every road he could into the bill.

My understanding is that the new infrastructure bill will operate on the block-grant model and does not currently specify any individual corridors to receive a dedicated budget. This could change as the negotiations continue.

Without the top-down federal planning administrators, a project like this needs either enough buy-in from the state DOTs that they want to spend their budget on it, or enough political support that the representatives of the affected states write it in as an earmark. The shortest route between Oklahoma City and Denver, using the most existing road corridors (which is far cheaper because less land is needed), would be to follow US-270 to Fort Supply, then cut northwest to Limon, Colorado to tie into Interstate 70. Thus arises one of the issues that makes this corridor complicated: a direct route cuts through an extremely unpopulated section of southwest Kansas, such that Kansas would have to spend quite a large amount of money on a road that barely benefits their state. There are a couple of ways around that: you can follow the route to Boise City and turn north on US-287 to Limon, bypassing Kansas entirely, or move the route through Kansas in such a way that it serves Dodge City and Garden City, which pass for the major population centers in that region of Kansas, so that it has some value to Kansas. Either way, you are adding more miles to the route, which means the time savings is reduced and cost is increased, which means there's less of an incentive to build the road.

Additionally, without the designation of a high-priority corridor or even an unfunded mandate from Congress, the state DOTs will naturally be reluctant to commit to a multistate corridor like this. It generally isn't well-received when a state DOT builds a road up to a state line, and the adjoining state is not interested in continuing it, so it ends up just dead-ending. A great example of what can happen is the north end of Highway 58—clearly Oklahoma and Kansas were not on the same page here. (Even when both states agree they want to build a road, this can happen. Arkansas and Missouri went through this for something like 20 years with I-49 in NW Arkansas because every time Missouri had the funding to build, Arkansas didn't, and vice versa.)

The entirety of the Oklahoma portion of this route falls in the district of Rep. Frank Lucas (R), so if you want this to happen, he's probably the guy you need to talk to. I wouldn't get my hopes up too much, though, since he voted against the stimulus bill (as did every House rep from Oklahoma). But you can call his office and suggest it if you have some time to kill and there aren't any brick walls nearby to shout at.

[Bill Robertson]

I don't ski anymore but when I did an Interstate directly from OKC to Denver would have been amazing. And cost me a lot because I'd have gone skiing way more often.

[SoonerDave]

I don't ski anymore but when I did an Interstate directly from OKC to Denver would have been amazing. And cost me a lot because I'd have gone skiing way more often.

A curious observation I've made over the years is that there are a *lot* of conspicuous gaps in NW <==> SE interstates. I found that out years ago when I planned my family's first driving trip to Florida. The Appalachian Highway was one of those "earmarked" routes they finally finished into a full-n interstate (I-79 I think) about four (?) years ago. As nice as it is, though, it doesn't go all they way from Birminhgam to Memphis; you still have to take a very industrial stretch from there to north Mississippi and then on the rest of the way.

OKC to Denver is one of those same directional highways. And if I'm not mistaken, Gov George Nigh planned a big NW corridor interstate project from OKC to the panhandle, but didn't get any support for it.

[catch22]

The interstate system was designed for NE to SW travel. Which explains the lack of NW->SE routes.

[Plutonic Panda]

The interstate system was designed for NE to SW travel. Which explains the lack of NW->SE routes.

Apart from the obvious geographical issues that would make such a route extremely expensive, what a route it would be to travel from Seattle to New Orleans. That would be something.

[Scott5114]

The interstate system was designed for NE to SW travel. Which explains the lack of NW->SE routes.

It was actually designed as a grid system, more or less. Diagonal routes like I-44 are more of an exception rather than the rule (and I-44 is only there because US-66 was there before it).