US-75/I-44 Interchange

[bombermwc]

I know they didn't have funding...that wasn't my question. My question was why not do one side of the interchange at a time instead of doing it this way where it's part of the whole interchange. For example, only do the full westbound side and leave eastbound for later. Or do one corner of it with site prep/etc for the others. It's extremely unusual that they would have released this in a way to do only the structural piers and then wait for the next phase.

Almost like stopping building the capital dome because you ran out of money.

Unless I'm missing something, that interchange today doesn't seem that busy either. With 244 so close, it seems like it's not really such a bottleneck. If we're fighting over funds for interchanges, 240/35 in OKC is about 100 times more busy and we're struggling to get ODOT to fund that one to completion.

[shavethewhales]

^Because that wouldn't have made sense in terms of the whole project. You can't do one corner of an interchange when the roads themselves are also being widened. You would have to come back and redo the ramps that you created in the first phase. The first phase of this project that has already been completed involved widening both I44 and US75 through the interchange. Now the ramps have a place to go, and they've already been halfway constructed.

This interchange has suffered from major rush hour backups for as long as I've lived in the area. It's been a source of constant wrecks that mess up the morning commutes to downtown from the south suburbs. We have a couple others that are way beyond capacity for cloverleaf style interchanges.

240/35 in OKC should also be a priority. IMO, the state should be focused on upgrading cloverleafs in both major metros for the next decade.

[Swake]

$252 million was awarded yesterday to Manhattan Construction for phases 2, 3 and 4 of this project to start in the spring.

https://tulsaworld.com/news/state-re...cdaaddf4d.html

These phases will complete the interchange and all work on US-75 leaving a couple of miles of I-44 west of US-75 to be widened in phase 5.