This is huge news!
10-25-12 (http://eastword.net/Flipbook.asp?sectionid=22&subsectionid=166)

Hooray! More urban sprawl. Meanwhile we have two major interchanges in the city that badly need to be rebuilt.

One of the main issues if you read the article, is firefighters have a hard time getting to areas fast enough. But I am sure squashing urban sprawl is much more important.

Sucks for Midwest City, no frontage at all...

I do not see them building a Kirkpatrick style road in that area, if there is not enough political will to build the southwest Kilpatrick expansion then an area with less population and traffic is not likely to get it done. It does seem like a bit of a waste did not do a full interchange when they put the ramps to/from OKC with a bridge at i44 & Hogback, as the bridge is generally the most expensive part of that arrangement.

How are you sure that it will never pay for itself? As for roads, I see construction constantly on improving roads and highways. And as for bridges, if I remember correctly, construction is supposed to begin in 2018 on fixing our bridges statewide. And I also don't think most people realize how much eoc has grown despite this highway connection.

I would encourage every one of you to drive that route and experience the "congestion". This proposal is the height of silliness.

A lot of this is already a done deal and paid for. As most of you probably already know, I-40 is scheduled to be widened to six lanes at the I-40 and I-240 merge all the way out to the county line. At the same time, Choctaw Road has already been scheduled and paid for to be widened from SE 44th to SE 89th street with a turning lane near I-40. If you read the Choctaw city web site, they already have intentions to widen Choctaw Road to four lanes from where Oklahoma City ends on up until NE 63rd. The Choctaw Road widening project was paid for on a 2007 bond election that passed overwhelmingly. You may remember everyone on the downtown threads were giddy with joy that all of the bond projects passed just before the MAPS III came around. I live at I-40 and Choctaw Road and I am thrilled with this happening.

I work at Tinker and every day there is a back up of traffic beginning around Post Road lasting to just past Choctaw Road. It is so bad sometimes that I prefer to drive down SE 59th to avoid it. The city already has measures to limit the density in the area by zoning the lots as no more than one dwelling per acre. This may prevent density but it fills up the available land at a faster rate causing sprawl that everyone fears so much. Anyway, this is not a big surprise. I am glad that something is being planned. The secret is out and people have discovered that the East is a nice area to live and like it or not, people are going to come.

So it gets widened to 4 lanes with the chance of upgrading to a higher speed highway? Yawn.

Let me know when we get a 2nd option north out of Norman that isn't Sooner Road.

Queue Kerry in 3...2...1...

Do any of you that dislike or don't care about this project live in eastern Oklahoma County?

I think this is good for the area.

I think this is good for the area.

very good and will help growth of the east side of oklahoma county

I would like this very much. If you need to get to I-44 from anywhere in that area, it takes about the same time to loop back around on the interstates as it does to go north on Choctaw/Hogback because of the stop signs. Some things to keep in mind.

This can't be turned into a toll road. If you haven't ever driven it, then please do so before you comment. The amount of money that would be required to turn it into a real interstate rather than state highway would be so high, it would never come out of toll and have a hard time paying for itself anyway. There are so many homes along there that would have to be purchased, it would be stupid expensive. Now, state highway type like 23rd...4-lanes with a center turn, that's a whole other ball game. This would correct drainage issues by burrying that piece along the road....They would need to level a LOT of road, which is good. If you remove the stop signs every mile and give the cross-traffic an alternative, that's good too. But that's the key. You have to remove the stop signs every mile on Choctaw/Hogback, or it's pointless. Only then can it be a higher speed road...and we're talking 55 here, not 70. The time saver comes by removing the stop signs on this stretch of road.

Now my question is, what are they going to do up in the Jones area. It gets a little weird up there as it shifts around. There's already 44 accesss close by there, but not for westbound from what i remember.

I would like this very much. If you need to get to I-44 from anywhere in that area, it takes about the same time to loop back around on the interstates as it does to go north on Choctaw/Hogback because of the stop signs. Some things to keep in mind.

This can't be turned into a toll road. If you haven't ever driven it, then please do so before you comment. The amount of money that would be required to turn it into a real interstate rather than state highway would be so high, it would never come out of toll and have a hard time paying for itself anyway. There are so many homes along there that would have to be purchased, it would be stupid expensive. Now, state highway type like 23rd...4-lanes with a center turn, that's a whole other ball game. This would correct drainage issues by burrying that piece along the road....They would need to level a LOT of road, which is good. If you remove the stop signs every mile and give the cross-traffic an alternative, that's good too. But that's the key. You have to remove the stop signs every mile on Choctaw/Hogback, or it's pointless. Only then can it be a higher speed road...and we're talking 55 here, not 70. The time saver comes by removing the stop signs on this stretch of road.

Now my question is, what are they going to do up in the Jones area. It gets a little weird up there as it shifts around. There's already 44 accesss close by there, but not for westbound from what i remember.

that road wouldn't be the toll road ... the toll road would be somewhere close by on other land ..

*rimshot*

Was this a for sure thing or just proposed? What is happening with this?

Correction - apparently the widening was part of the 2007 bond and with the i40 interchange being done by ODOT, funding is expected to be from federal year 2015

I see. How is this going about though. Are they doing any studies, planning, preliminary designing??? Planning for a way to come up with funding or did they just put out this proposal to build a far out time table?

The part about turning Choctaw into a freeway was just proposed and I don't see it happening anytime soon since the neighbors fight any development over there. The Loves Truck Stop put in their proposal to be on the NW side fo the I-40 and Choctaw interchange and immediately a group got together and started going door to door to get people to go to the public hearing. It wan't the truck stop itself that people were fighting but rather the rezoning of an adjacent piece of land for the purpose of making a second lagoon. They thought if they could fight that, then Love's would have to shrink their parking lot size that had room for 75 trucks to park. They were successful in that fight. The truck stop is stilll going to be built but with a smaller truck parking.

As far as studies go, there are several Tetra Tech studies that are available online for the I-40 widening project. Also there are several for the acquiring property for right of way and utility relocation along Choctaw Road. This has already begun both North and South of I-40. Seems like every three or four days there are a new set of red, orange and yellow flags marking the utilities.

The part about turning Choctaw into a freeway was just proposed and I don't see it happening anytime soon since the neighbors fight any development over there. The Loves Truck Stop put in their proposal to be on the NW side of the I-40 and Choctaw interchange and immediately a group got together and started going door to door to get people to go to the public hearing. It wasn't the truck stop itself that people were fighting but rather the rezoning of an adjacent piece of land for the purpose of making a second lagoon. They thought if they could fight that, then Love's would have to shrink their parking lot size to make room for the lagoon on their own property that had room for 75 trucks to park. They were successful in that fight. The truck stop is stilll going to be built but with a smaller truck parking but it will retain the McDonald's and Subway.

As far as studies go, there are several Tetra Tech studies that are available online for the I-40 widening project. Also there are several for the acquiring property for right of way and utility relocation along Choctaw Road. This has already begun both North and South of I-40. Seems like every three or four days there are a new set of red, orange and yellow flags marking the utilities.

I drove out that way recently and the Love's truck stop was rebuilt on the same plot of land where their original store was destroyed by that tornado. Are they planning on building a mega truck stop in the area?

That's actually that was the Thunder Travel Plaza that was built on the land where the Anderson Travel Plaza was destroyed by the tornado. Love's was on the north side of I-40 and will be rebuilt on the north side again but on the west side of Choctaw Rd. and a little further from the highway.

Ahhhh ha. Thank you!

Anything new on this?