The New I-40 (Construction Updates)

[OKCisOK4me]

there is probably a diference between it being open and being complete...maybe what they meant, it is the last paving contract before they can open the road to traffic and shut down the old Crosstown? Think they said they have a couple of more years or so of related stuff stuff to do (not counting the Boulevard)

My "complete" does not include the boulevard. The point I was expressing, is that if they're going to open it to full traffic access, the ends will be a knot as each direction of traffic is diverted to one side while they work on connecting the other, so as there may be 10 lanes for the full length (5 in each direction) the ends will be on one side (therefore 2 1/2 lanes in each direction).

[Larry OKC]

The express lanes were in all the renderings...in fact it was 2 lanes in each direction seperated with a concrete barrier. To me, it doesn't look like there is enough room on the pavement being laid to include that as well as the other 5 lanes of normal traffic each side was supposed to have. But hey, renderings more often than no, do not tell the end story....

I never saw renderings but vaguely recall "express" lanes being mentioned (but can't find it in print now). That said, it was always my understanding that the express lanes were include in the overall 10 lane count??? And not 10 lanes regular (5 each side) AND more express lanes. Is that not correct??

[Larry OKC]

My "complete" does not include the boulevard. The point I was expressing, is that if they're going to open it to full traffic access, the ends will be a knot as each direction of traffic is diverted to one side while they work on connecting the other, so as there may be 10 lanes for the full length (5 in each direction) the ends will be on one side (therefore 2 1/2 lanes in each direction).

I think we are on the same page...

[OKCisOK4me]

I think we are on the same page...

[Snowman]

My "complete" does not include the boulevard. The point I was expressing, is that if they're going to open it to full traffic access, the ends will be a knot as each direction of traffic is diverted to one side while they work on connecting the other, so as there may be 10 lanes for the full length (5 in each direction) the ends will be on one side (therefore 2 1/2 lanes in each direction).

They will probably take up some of the right shoulder and left breakdown lane so each will have a full 3 each direction.

[ljbab728]

I never saw renderings but vaguely recall "express" lanes being mentioned (but can't find it in print now). That said, it was always my understanding that the express lanes were include in the overall 10 lane count??? And not 10 lanes regular (5 each side) AND more express lanes. Is that not correct??

There may have been some mention of eventually having express lanes and it may have been constructed with that in mind but there were never any plans to have express lanes when it opened. I'm not sure what rendering bomber saw but I've been on many freeways with express lanes and never saw any with two lanes in each direction. I have seen some with reversible lanes which can be adjusted according to rush hour traffic flow. If traffic in Los Angeles or Dallas doesn't require that, I can't imagine why we would ever need to go to that expense in OKC.

[OKCisOK4me]

The picture is on the odot site. I'd do all the magic work to post it but its more difficult from a phone.

[ljbab728]

Unless I've missed something, there is no mention of express lanes here:

http://40forward.com/

[zrfdude]

[Larry OKC]

Unless I've missed something, there is no mention of express lanes here:

http://40forward.com/

You are correct, I couldn't find any current mention of them either. What few documents I have don't mention them but I vaguely recall seeing it at some point (just can't prove it now)...LOL

[Larry OKC]

Hey, are those the "express lanes" there in the center of the pic?

[OKCisOK4me]

Hey, are those the "express lanes" there in the center of the pic?

Yes. Do you see the barriers? That's for all traffic not getting off or on between I-35 and I-44.

[OKCRT]

That pic shows 2 express lanes for each side of the freeway. I hope they build it like that.

[SkyWestOKC]

Just by looking at it in person, I don't think it is wide enough for that. But what do I know. It would be nice if they did it.

[jn1780]

Express lanes would come in handy in the future if there is more downtown development southward. With the new boulevard and extra lanes, the bottlenecks are still going to be the junctions east and west of the new I-40.

[Snowman]

If you noticed it is labeled Alternative D because they did plans for several variations of lane designs, the one selected is standard lanes, not express or high occupancy lanes.

[jonno]

That pic shows 2 express lanes for each side of the freeway. I hope they build it like that.

They're not. I don't think they'll be needed either.

[bombermwc]

The express lanes are something I was actually really excited about. You have no idea how much congestion that could remove...just look at 35 in Austin. It's amazing how people say I'm crazy and then there's the proof i'm not. hmm.

The benefit of these lanes is made abundantly clear at Robinson Ave's onramp to 40 east right now. That's the entire reason anything backs up at all downtown on a daily basis. If you have traffic blocked off from cars getting over to get out of the merging traffic's way (and fighting to get back to get to 35 south), then it's amazingly awesome for through traffic. Austin took it to a whole new level (literally) and has a two level bridge system, with express being on top....they come back together to cross the river.

In OKC, if you have any sense (and odot rarely does) you build things like an express lane to be prepared for the future, and not just the present. That is why the current crosstown is so inadequate. They built for short term predictions of growth and (like always) the road lived at least twice as long as it was really planned or designed to and handles something like 3 times the load.

[semisimple]

The express lanes are something I was actually really excited about. You have no idea how much congestion that could remove...just look at 35 in Austin. It's amazing how people say I'm crazy and then there's the proof i'm not. hmm.

The benefit of these lanes is made abundantly clear at Robinson Ave's onramp to 40 east right now. That's the entire reason anything backs up at all downtown on a daily basis. If you have traffic blocked off from cars getting over to get out of the merging traffic's way (and fighting to get back to get to 35 south), then it's amazingly awesome for through traffic. Austin took it to a whole new level (literally) and has a two level bridge system, with express being on top....they come back together to cross the river.

In OKC, if you have any sense (and odot rarely does) you build things like an express lane to be prepared for the future, and not just the present. That is why the current crosstown is so inadequate. They built for short term predictions of growth and (like always) the road lived at least twice as long as it was really planned or designed to and handles something like 3 times the load.

I agree that express lanes are a good idea but Austin is a bad example here. The "express lanes" in Austin don't effectively function as express lanes; they were added in the 70s as a capacity band-aid because of the narrow ROW, and the freeway hasn't been upgraded again despite metro Austin quadrupling in size since the "deck" was added.

In fact that stretch of 35 in Austin is actually one of the most congested stretches of highway in the nation--250,000 vehicles per day on 8 lanes that bottlenecks to six near the termini of the express lanes. The I-40 crosstown in OKC, by comparison, carries a maximum of ~110,000 vehicles per day, see here.

New Jersey makes good use of local/express lanes on its highways and their express lanes actually seem to function as such. For example, the NJ Turnpike outside of Newark--three-plus lanes of local traffic and three lanes of thru traffic in each direction, direct connectors to both local and thru routes, and all truck traffic confined to the local lanes. If OKC did institute express lanes on I-40 it would be nice to segregate the trucks in a similar fashion since there can be heavy truck traffic on the crosstown route.

[Larry OKC]

If you noticed it is labeled Alternative D because they did plans for several variations of lane designs, the one selected is standard lanes, not express or high occupancy lanes.

There were many proposed routes (taking different paths). Alternate D was just the path selected.

[OKCisOK4me]

There were many proposed routes (taking different paths). Alternate D was just the path selected.

Yes, Larry is right about that. There were four separate paths to be chosen. One of them practically hugging the river.

[Larry OKC]

Does anyone have info, maps etc of the other routes? I haven't been able to locate any (A, B & C)????

[mcca7596]

It doesn't have very good info on them, but on page 2 of this pdf there is a map of the alternatives:
http://www.okladot.state.ok.us/newsm...wn_History.pdf

[Larry OKC]

It doesn't have very good info on them, but on page 2 of this pdf there is a map of the alternatives:
http://www.okladot.state.ok.us/newsm...wn_History.pdf

[okcustu]

Whats the elevated stretch of road curving toward the current Crosstown between Penn and Agnew/Villa?