Odot

[ou48A]

I don’t know……but it might be time to bring in somebody from a different state who is better at more timely methods of construction.

It shouldn’t take about 35 years to rebuild I- 35 from I-40 to the south end of Norman.

[bluedogok]

I don’t know……but it might be time to bring in somebody from a different state who is better at more timely methods of construction.

It shouldn’t take about 35 years to rebuild I- 35 from I-40 to the south end of Norman.

That is based more on funding methods than a desire to take a long time. Want roads built/rebuilt quickly? Make it a toll road because the bonds are fully funded at the start of a project. For "free roads" it is always limited to how much gas tax money is available from year to year and they can't spend (build) beyond what is budgeted from year to year because the funding past a year is not guaranteed to be there because of the whims of the feds or state legislatures.

It can be even worse in Texas, US290/Ben White in Austin has been under construction since before my wife moved there in 1989, it was still under construction when we sold our house in South Austin earlier this year. Benham quit doing work in Texas many years ago because TxDOT was a worse cluster(ya know) than ODOT. At least on the engineering side ODOT (and many other state DOT's) are much easier to work with and more logical than TxDOT. Most people that gripe vociferously about ODOT are the people who favor some other forms of transportation over roads. ODOT's main mission as put forth by the Oklahoma legislature is road building, want changes at ODOT or OTA, make changes at the legislative/executive level.

[ou48A]

That is based more on funding methods than a desire to take a long time. Want roads built/rebuilt quickly? Make it a toll road because the bonds are fully funded at the start of a project. For "free roads" it is always limited to how much gas tax money is available from year to year and they can't spend (build) beyond what is budgeted from year to year because the funding past a year is not guaranteed to be there because of the whims of the feds or state legislatures.

It can be even worse in Texas, US290/Ben White in Austin has been under construction since before my wife moved there in 1989, it was still under construction when we sold our house in South Austin earlier this year. Benham quit doing work in Texas many years ago because TxDOT was a worse cluster(ya know) than ODOT. At least on the engineering side ODOT (and many other state DOT's) are much easier to work with and more logical than TxDOT. Most people that gripe vociferously about ODOT are the people who favor some other forms of transportation over roads. ODOT's main mission as put forth by the Oklahoma legislature is road building, want changes at ODOT or OTA, make changes at the legislative/executive level.

It’s the funding methods that we need to take a look at.
In Oklahoma it seems like our legislators dole out funds for road projects based on everyone getting a little. This causes major projects to drag out over a very lengthy time

TxDOT seems to secure its funding for major projects in a way that leads to much quicker construction. Once started their major projects don’t seem like they are slowed by lack of funding. The reconstruction of Dallas central expressway (US75) took about 8 years. In terms of size and scale it’s probably a bigger project than any road reconstruction project ever undertaken in Oklahoma. It dwarfs OKC’s recent I-40 project.

A strong ODOT director with armed with the power of persuasion could help change our methods of funding.

[adaniel]

It’s the funding methods that we need to take a look at.
In Oklahoma it seems like our legislators dole out funds for road projects based on everyone getting a little. This causes major projects to drag out over a very lengthy time

TxDOT seems to secure its funding for major projects in a way that leads to much quicker construction. Once started their major projects don’t seem like they are slowed by lack of funding. The reconstruction of Dallas central expressway (U75) took about 8 years. In terms of size and scale it’s probably a bigger project than any road reconstruction project ever undertaken in Oklahoma. It dwarfs OKC’s recent I-40 project.

A strong ODOT director with armed with the power of persuasion could help change our methods of funding.

While I don't disagree with your assessment, I think its worth pointing out that TxDOT is pretty much broke right now, maybe even more underfunded than ODOT. They are suffering from the same fate that ODOT is (low gas tax collection, poor planning for future projects, etc.) I'm fairly certain that they are not adding any extra road capacity--only resurfacing/maintenance of existing roads--and pretty much everything you see getting built has some sort of toll component. Even new lanes that are added to existing roads, like the upcoming widening of I-35E between Denton and Lewisville (btw I would avoid that area for the next few years) are just the addition of toll lanes, i.e., "Lexus Lanes" with congestion pricing.

No doubt ODOT needs to address their funding mechanisms, but the root of the problems is, like every other state agency, they have to browbeat the goons at the state capitol for every penny. Until that changes they will constantly be playing catchup. It is ridiculous that the 44/77/235 interchange is going to take as long as it is, but the state can fix it tomorrow if they gave them the funds they need. The state can also look at upping the gas tax, which will have to be voter approved, or start involving OTA in some of their projects to get some toll funding.

[MagzOK]

It's amazing what ODOT can do when it has the money. Ridley and his engineers actually started something new in the country with the reconstruction of the I-40 bridge collapse in Webbers Falls in 2002. He implemented incentives and disincentives within the contract itself and got the Feds to loosen all the red tape. Pretty remarkable actually.