Took these today (Wed) around 1:30PM:
Took these today (Wed) around 1:30PM:
Drove through this on Saturday. I was WB -> SB and had I not had an intuition on which lanes to be in I would have completely missed my opportunity to get into the far right lanes a mile or two from this interchange. There’s just an odd fork in the road created by cones (no signage that I could see) and after staying right I then wondered if I had somehow ventured into the actual construction site by accident and not the travel lanes.
Looks great though.
Taken today (Sunday 10/3):
Any idea when those northbound lanes will fully open?
The whole thing is supposed to be done by the end of the year.
The hardest part is waiting for the last 2 or 3 months to finish. I can't wait until this thing opens so the maniacs will have more lanes to fly through at 80 mph and I have less chance of getting run over.
Great job documenting this development Pete.
new ODOT 8 year plan for the last phase of this project
I-44: WESTBOUND TO NORTHBOUND RAMPS AT I-44/I-235 INTERCHANGE
JP# 903328 FFY 2023 GRADE, DRAIN, BRIDGE & SURFACE $ 16,642,000
fyi 2023 fiscal year starts in JULY 22 this is do to be out for bit 1/2023
Just went by there (about 2PM on Tuesday) and the remainder of the bridge steel was being installed.
They already had most of it done.
Took these this afternoon (Sunday):
That is a WIDE bridge...actually I guess it's two bridges...or functions as two
The single point merge from East to North flyover & from West to North should be ending any day now right? I don't see any reason why they need to leave that as is with all pavement done there and this being a major safety issue.
In fact all north bound lanes should be shifted back over to the normal lanes shouldn't it?
If they were really motivated, they could completely wrap this project in a month.
And they should be motivated because that intersection is beyond unsafe. I will absolutely not take the 63rd south on-ramp and even the flyover from NB 235 to WB 44 is very hairy due to a lack of merge lane.
It's nice they've kept everything open but this has been crazy dangerous for years now.
I wish they’d do noise studies to determine the feasibility and humanity of continuing projects like this 24/7. Many times in LA they’ll do freeway projects all through the night. Why don’t they do this in OKC?
It would cost a lot more money though, and the risk is higher. They'd need to use almost all High Early concrete, which has high compressive strength faster than usual, but that stuff also forms up fast and doesn't allow for too much working and longer transportation. Also, it's more expensive to make. They have a lot of concrete left to pour, after placing all of the reinforcing. Presuming good weather, I bet it'll be open in about 8 weeks on a good schedule, probably 12 to be safe.
Ya 28 days is usually the cure time for concrete. Don't want to rush that on a road like this
I’d be curious to know if they risk actually going over budget/inflation issues by dragging this out over 10+years. That’s plenty of time to not only alienate your population I wish there were actions I could legally take to affect this and keep this from happening again. I can’t tell you how many close calls I’ve had. But also lets not forget the close calls other more important people have had. Or non resident travel ors who just happened to make the mistake of taking this atrocity.
It's completely shocking to me the way they have allowed these no-merge-lane transitions for years on end.
I guess I shouldn't be so surprised when the entire intersection wasn't much better even before construction.
This is the same city and state that allows most of the streetlights to be out and only makes a half-hearted attempt to fix them after everything is documented in an embarrassing fashion. And then lets things go right back to the previous deplorable state as soon as the furor dies down a bit.
I can quickly think of three experiences where I could have experienced tragedy due to virtually no street lighting. The first was driving down I-44 to the airport on a rainy night where I literally couldn't see the lane markers (which are similarly poorly maintained). Another was exiting from I-40 east to the OKC Boulevard and almost ramming the retaining wall on the flyover; you can see a bunch of scrape marks where others were not as lucky. And the third was almost hitting a pedestrian in the blacked-out area between the Myriad Gardens and Scissortail Park, even though I was paying close attention -- I literally couldn't see this person before they were right in front of my car.
My conclusion is the city/state doesn't get sued enough to motivate them to actually do anything, so they just don't spend any money or effort. People here simply seem to be content with the sorry state; or haven't lived elsewhere to have higher expectations.
They also have "no merge" on I-44 west/south from I-40, and honestly, I'm avoiding the whole interchange until the bridge work is complete. The visibility from traffic coming over the bridge is terrible
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