I-235 / I-44 Interchange

[Plutonic Panda]

^^^^ Like

[bchris02]

Why does every road construction project in Oklahoma take so long? A decade to widen I-35 from Norman to I-240? Now its going to be a decade to rebuild the I-235/I-44 interchange?

Other states are able to get much larger projects done in much less time.

[OKCisOK4me]

How many times do we have to explain it?

[ljbab728]

How many times do we have to explain it?

Get's kinda frustrating, doesn't it. LOL

[Plutonic Panda]

How many times do we have to explain it?

I thought the same thing.

Why does every road construction project in Oklahoma take so long? A decade to widen I-35 from Norman to I-240? Now its going to be a decade to rebuild the I-235/I-44 interchange?

Other states are able to get much larger projects done in much less time.

It has to do with the way Oklahoma funds it highways. You can't borrow money like Texas does and have 3 different multi billion dollar highway projects going on at the same time in Dallas. I wish Oklahoma would allow for that, but on the other hand, it is more responsible to do it the way we do it. I think they should have exceptions for things like this this interchange and a few others in the city.

[bchris02]

I thought the same thing.

It has to do with the way Oklahoma funds it highways. You can't borrow money like Texas does and have 3 different multi billion dollar highway projects going on at the same time in Dallas. I wish Oklahoma would allow for that, but on the other hand, it is more responsible to do it the way we do it. I think they should have exceptions for things like this this interchange and a few others in the city.

Sorry for asking a question that has been asked multiple times.

Yes, I agree there should be exceptions for huge projects like this interchange.

[ljbab728]

Transportation officials urge motorists to avoid I-44/I-235 interchange as projects begin in Oklahoma City | News OK

[Plutonic Panda]

Sorry for asking a question that has been asked multiple times.

Yes, I agree there should be exceptions for huge projects like this interchange.

Ahhhhh, I don't have a problem with it. Hell, I do it quite often haha, that was kind of a hypocritical statement by me. I'm sure some here think to themselves(those who even read my post ) when I keep saying I wish that they would turn those tow cloverleafs into fly-overs or I wish Devon would've kept their original plans to build 65 stories instead 50 and I'm sure thoughts go through, like, "ok plupan I get it, shut about it!!!!" lol. . . It's all good though haha.

Though, I really wish something could be done about moving projects ahead, but this is Oklahoma. The one thing I hate more than anything is having a project come along really fast and then just STOP! That seems to happen a lot here and it's frustrating. This happens with private as well. This happens in other places, obviously, but it's not as common.

[Plutonic Panda]

Transportation officials urge motorists to avoid I-44/I-235 interchange as projects begin in Oklahoma City | News OK

Hey, I was gonna post that!!!!!!! lol jk

BTW I just had to chuckle at this part

the closure of I-235 in its entirety for as long as two days this summer

[OKCisOK4me]

It wood behoove me if the Edmond commuters can't know that both I-35 and 74 exist as corridors on each side of their city. Now all Edmond has to do is to have Covell 4 lanes between the two as in their master plan and all will be well!

[Plutonic Panda]

Article from News9 :OKC Drivers React To More Construction Work At I-44, I-235 - News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports |

[jn1780]

It wood behoove me if the Edmond commuters can't know that both I-35 and 74 exist as corridors on each side of their city. Now all Edmond has to do is to have Covell 4 lanes between the two as in their master plan and all will be well!

They have 3 years to discover these roads because 2016 is when the major work starts.

I guess its possible NW 50th and the RR bridge project gets bumped up, but really all of the other projects cost a lot more and pretty much roll right into each other so I don't see any more work taking place for the next 2-3 years after this project is completed.

[stlokc]

I don't remember how it was financed, but in St. Louis they completely rebuilt an entire 10-15 mile stretch of highway a few yrs ago. Probably twenty interchanges including a very complex one similar to this one in question. The way they did it was to completely, I mean completely, close half of it one year, then the other half the other year. They rebuilt the whole thing in 2 years. And this is the primary highway from the suburbs ibto downtown. The thought was, if they tried to keep it open during construction it would take forever. Better to get it done as fast as possible, even though it caused huge detours for a period of time. I mean huge - something like 150,000 cars funneled onto other interstates. Website was: thenewI-64.com. Can't help thinking, if they worked night and day they could probably do this interchange in 6 months to a year. Wouldn't it be better to funnel traffic to I-35 and Lake Hefner Pkwy for a period of time and just get. it. done.

[Plutonic Panda]

I don't remember how it was financed, but in St. Louis they completely rebuilt an entire 10-15 mile stretch of highway a few yrs ago. Probably twenty interchanges including a very complex one similar to this one in question. The way they did it was to completely, I mean completely, close half of it one year, then the other half the other year. They rebuilt the whole thing in 2 years. And this is the primary highway from the suburbs ibto downtown. The thought was, if they tried to keep it open during construction it would take forever. Better to get it done as fast as possible, even though it caused huge detours for a period of time. I mean huge - something like 150,000 cars funneled onto other interstates. Website was: thenewI-64.com. Can't help thinking, if they worked night and day they could probably do this interchange in 6 months to a year. Wouldn't it be better to funnel traffic to I-35 and Lake Hefner Pkwy for a period of time and just get. it. done.

The New I-64 - Missouri Department of Transportation , very nice. Yes, I agree though. I wish they would three things with this project, convert the two cloverleafs to fly-overs and just shut the freakin thing down until it is done. It would be safer and most likely would get done faster. Also, just finance it and pay it back instead of waiting a decade to finish it. If any of these things happen, it will be good, but highly unlikely. :/

[edcrunk]

Attachment 3431 The High-Five would be the sh**. I this cost around 250mil. It would be nice to see something similar to this. I doubt seeing it happen though. We also don't have the express toll ways that Dallas has going through the interchange.

75 (central expressway) and 635 are the two highways that make up the High five and neither is a toll road. George Bush and the North Dallas Tollway are the only I can think of.

[Plutonic Panda]

75 (central expressway) and 635 are the two highways that make up the High five and neither is a toll road. George Bush and the North Dallas Tollway are the only I can think of.

Well, with the new 635 expansion, they are adding express toll lanes, that's what I was referring to.

[Snowman]

I don't remember how it was financed, but in St. Louis they completely rebuilt an entire 10-15 mile stretch of highway a few yrs ago. Probably twenty interchanges including a very complex one similar to this one in question. The way they did it was to completely, I mean completely, close half of it one year, then the other half the other year. They rebuilt the whole thing in 2 years. And this is the primary highway from the suburbs ibto downtown. The thought was, if they tried to keep it open during construction it would take forever. Better to get it done as fast as possible, even though it caused huge detours for a period of time. I mean huge - something like 150,000 cars funneled onto other interstates. Website was: thenewI-64.com. Can't help thinking, if they worked night and day they could probably do this interchange in 6 months to a year. Wouldn't it be better to funnel traffic to I-35 and Lake Hefner Pkwy for a period of time and just get. it. done.

The financing has always been the biggest delay on this, technically this is part of the same overarching plan that expanded Broadway extension to eight lanes and connected the spur at this intersection to downtown, so it has been a piecemeal approach going on for at least twenty five years now.

[MagzOK]

It takes an act of the OK Legislature to have ODOT or the State to issue bonds or to just fund ODOT to work. The problem is that every legislature wants a piece of the bonds. Look at the two phases of the CIP Program from 1997 or so. A handful of Oklahoma's metropolitan area legislators got together with ODOT senior staff to come up with some way to fund extremely expensive and needed construction projects. CIP was a fantastic idea in its beginning phases because it was going to address a backlog of needed highway construction/reconstruction. ODOT gathered up a wishlist, so to speak, however many non-metro area legislators didn't like the idea of the metropolitan areas receiving most of the money. Instead of leaving it up to ODOT (the ones who assess the state's highway needs), legislators decided that if they were going to approve such a historic program each of them wanted a piece. So what we ended up getting was a piece of crap program that each legislator or whatnot got to have some new construction project in their district, basically evenly distributing the money, and therefore totally diluted the original purpose of the program. They actually got to choose (over ODOT) the project they wanted! The widening of Broadway Extension from Edmond to NW 63rd I think was this area's CIP project. Then ODOT and these legislators started looking into the GARVEE Bond program that so many states had been using successfully. Again, the non-metro legislators didn't like "gambling" with potential future highway monies, and turned it down. But yes, it's extremely ridiculous that we can't get these things funded and completed faster. Look at I-35 corridor from downtown to Norman. It's just now in the final phases, but now it's time to start again and widen to 4 or 5 lanes. Just horrible. It's all a big joke.

[HangryHippo]

It takes an act of the OK Legislature to have ODOT or the State to issue bonds or to just fund ODOT to work. The problem is that every legislature wants a piece of the bonds. Look at the two phases of the CIP Program from 1997 or so. A handful of Oklahoma's metropolitan area legislators got together with ODOT senior staff to come up with some way to fund extremely expensive and needed construction projects. CIP was a fantastic idea in its beginning phases because it was going to address a backlog of needed highway construction/reconstruction. ODOT gathered up a wishlist, so to speak, however many non-metro area legislators didn't like the idea of the metropolitan areas receiving most of the money. Instead of leaving it up to ODOT (the ones who assess the state's highway needs), legislators decided that if they were going to approve such a historic program each of them wanted a piece. So what we ended up getting was a piece of crap program that each legislator or whatnot got to have some new construction project in their district, basically evenly distributing the money, and therefore totally diluted the original purpose of the program. They actually got to choose (over ODOT) the project they wanted! The widening of Broadway Extension from Edmond to NW 63rd I think was this area's CIP project. Then ODOT and these legislators started looking into the GARVEE Bond program that so many states had been using successfully. Again, the non-metro legislators didn't like "gambling" with potential future highway monies, and turned it down. But yes, it's extremely ridiculous that we can't get these things funded and completed faster. Look at I-35 corridor from downtown to Norman. It's just now in the final phases, but now it's time to start again and widen to 4 or 5 lanes. Just horrible. It's all a big joke.

Good post. It's just been one disaster of stupidity after another. Unbelievable that we can't widen a highway before it's time to widen it again. Roads here are just an absolute joke.

[MustangGT]

Good post. It's just been one disaster of stupidity after another. Unbelievable that we can't widen a highway before it's time to widen it again. Roads here are just an absolute joke.

As bad as they are I have seen many that are worse messes. KCK and KCM come to mind.

[Anonymous.]

Just an update on this interchange.

The SB Broadway to Santa Fe/50th ramp and bridge is now officially closed.

They now have signs indicating up towards Britton heading SB down broadway that indicate they will be closing one lane. I hope this is for the weekend only as this will be a huge problem next week if they narrow that corridor to one lane. As of this morning, the signs are in place, but the road is still two lanes.

[LakeEffect]

From ODOT:

"Southbound I-235 ramp to N.W. 50th St. closed following accident

The southbound I-235 ramp to N.W. 50th St. is closed and will remain closed permanently following an accident yesterday when a truck struck the ramp/bridge over I-235. As part of the upcoming I-44/I-235 ramp reconstruction project starting in May, this ramp was scheduled to be permanently closed at that time and removed. Drivers on southbound I-235 wanting to exit onto N.W. 50th St. are advised to exit at N.W. 36th St. or exit eastbound I-44 at Western Ave. to bypass the closure.

I-44/I-235 ramp closes, I-235 narrows early Friday

The eastbound I-44 ramp to southbound I-235 and the right lane of southbound I-235 between I-44 and N.W. 50th St. will be closed from 3:30 a.m. to 6 a.m. Friday for sign removal."

Traffax - OKC

[Anonymous.]

Ah, figured it had to do with the bridge/ramp (deconstruction).

I wonder why they left all of their road work signs up...?

[NoOkie]

From ODOT:

"Southbound I-235 ramp to N.W. 50th St. closed following accident

The southbound I-235 ramp to N.W. 50th St. is closed and will remain closed permanently following an accident yesterday when a truck struck the ramp/bridge over I-235. As part of the upcoming I-44/I-235 ramp reconstruction project starting in May, this ramp was scheduled to be permanently closed at that time and removed. Drivers on southbound I-235 wanting to exit onto N.W. 50th St. are advised to exit at N.W. 36th St. or exit eastbound I-44 at Western Ave. to bypass the closure.

So glad that I don't live off 50th and Santa Fe anymore. I wonder how badly they hit the bridge to make them decide to close it early.

[catch22]

No point spending money to fix it if you are doing major work on it anyway in a month.