View Full Version : Highway lighting



metro
11-22-2004, 11:29 AM
Has anyone else noticed or heard about new lighting on the highways in OKC? I've noticed several large heavy guage aluminum lighting poles, but no lights on top yet all along I-44, 244, and Hefner Parkway as well as other places. Is it too good to be true that we are finally getting appropriate lighting??

okcpulse
11-22-2004, 12:23 PM
Unfortunately, metro, those poles will not be used fo highway lighting. They will be used for cameras that will monitor traffic from 14 points around Oklahoma City. Some poles already have the cameras installed. Others will be installed soon. ODOT did not indicated whether these poles will have lighting along with the cameras, but I do not believe that will be the case.

metro
11-22-2004, 02:31 PM
I think more lighting would have promoted safer driving conditions than the cameras but oh well.........

Patrick
11-22-2004, 11:30 PM
Thanks okcpulse for the info. I also have wondered about those aluminum poles. They seem to have sprouted up at every major intersection on the Hefner Parkway. I wasn't quite sure what the purpose was. Anyways, I've noticed more and more cameras are being installed across town. The city already has cameras installed at several major intersections to monitor traffic. NW 39th and Penn, and Broadway and 33rd St in Edmond come to mind, although I know there are several other intersections with cameras! Of course state law prohibits lawmakers from writing citations based on evidence gained from these cameras. I went to Germany about 10 years ago....there they had cameras at every intersection and along the highway. If you violated the law, they took a pic of your car tag and sent you a ticket in the mail. My dad was driving his brother's car (his brother lives in Germany), and he didn't make it through a yellow light.....his brother received a ticket in the mail a few months later.

Anyways, metro, I'm with you....we need more lights on our interstates here in town. Once the Broadway Extn. project is funally completed, lights will be added there. The spaces are already set and wired up. Unfortunately, Hefner Parkway will lnever have lights.....that was part of the agreement the city had with residents in Lake Hearst Housing Addition and others surrounding neigborhood associations.

SoundMind
11-23-2004, 10:31 PM
It's extremely hard to see on the Hefner Parkway when it's dark and raining outside. In my opinion, all of the highways in the metro area should have lighting. It would reduce the number of accidents.

metro
11-24-2004, 12:42 PM
In regards to the Broadway Extention project, are they widening the overpass of I-44? or do you mean new lighting on the part that was recently renovated? I think the Hefner parkway is fine although they need more lighting at the memorial intersection. We despirately need more at our junctions and on I-40 west of the Amarillo Junction there is no lighting at all out there, no wonder why it is so deadly. We should start a petition for better highway lighting. I know myself and others are actively involved with the city and could make it happen

Luke
11-24-2004, 04:18 PM
OK, forgive me, but what is the Amarillo Junction?

Patrick
11-29-2004, 10:42 PM
Sorry guys that I didn't get to these questions earlier! I had a nice long break away from the city for Thanksgiving. Anyways.....

An answer to metro's question: lighting will eventually be put on the new strretch of Brodway Extn. The wiring is in place and the places were cut out in the concrete wall. That will occur later once the entire project is completed though. Also, the Broadway Extn/I-44 junction will be completed redeveloped in the near future. The state has already purchased a good chunk of land around that area to create a junction similar in nature to the other major junctions. Much of the money is already there last time I heard! In conjunction with the widening of this junction, the state will also widen the rest of I-235 in between NW 36th and the Broadway Extn./I-44 junction. It will all eventually be 6 lanes, like the rest! It just all takes time!

Now, to Luke's question.....the Amarillo Junction is the junction of I-44 and I-40 right in front of Mathis Brothers. In my opinion, for a junction built in the 1970's, it's a very well designed junction. Pretty much everyone gets their own lane when they come on the highway. I have no clue why people tend to slow down on that junction. There's never a need to. Also, soon, I-40 west from that junction will be widened to 4 lanes, allowing traffic coming from I-44 northbound onto I-40 westbound to have their own lane like the rest of the junction's off ramps!

Luke
11-29-2004, 10:48 PM
Cool, thanks.