Love's Travel Plaza at Choctaw Road

[plmccordj]

I live in Deerfield Estates neighborhood on the South side of the truck stop and I received a letter from the city for a hearing on 19 Apr 2012 about the truck stop requesting a change to the city rules on signage. All it said was CAT Scale company wants to put a truck scale on the North side of the truck stop and they want to change the rules on the signage. The hearing will be downtown on the third floor that afternoon.

About a month ago, Cox Cable trenched out our front yards to tap into the cable line to run it over to the truck stop. They finally put up a fence behind our house. This weekend, I'll post some pictures.

[kevinpate]

Noticed the other day that there is a liquor/wine store included in the building.

If nothing else, it make the drivers and lot lizards a tad more appealing to each other.

[plmccordj]

The truck stop opened last Friday, June 8, 12. It is pretty nice but very busy. If you exit I-40 East at Choctaw Road, there is a lot of traffic there now. Even the Wendy's Hamburgers is open 24 hours.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Sign on the window says that they close at midnight (Wendy's).

But I did get a Frosty to dip my fries in last night!

[plmccordj]

Thanks for the information.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Well, that also may only be the drive up window that closes. No telling.

[plmccordj]

Now the title of this thread will finally make some sense. I see that Love's Travel Stops has filed for five building permits today. The permits are for 7401 S. Choctaw Road which is across the street and a little to the North of the old location. The old lot was eight acres and the new lot is 32 acres. I knew they would have to relocate since their old property will be the location of the West bound off ramp for I-40 once the widening project is complete. The new Love's location will be right at the SE 71st and Choctaw location where OKC has plans to install a red light. The main building permit shows it to be 11,071 square feet as shown below.

ob Value($): $3,000,000.00 Number of Buildings: 1 Public Owned: No Construction Type: 327-Stores and Customer Services

BUILDING Permission To: Erect Number of Stories: 1 Overall Height: 21 Square Footage: 11071 Existing Use: VACANT Proposed Use Code: Retail Sales Zoning: C-4

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Very cool. Thanks for posting that.

[curious neighbor]

Anyone know what all the yellow line is they are putting in?

[plmccordj]

Yes. The yellow line work that is happening between SE 44th and SE 59th on the West side of choctaw Road is the gas line being moved away from the road. This is the beginning stages of the utility and right of way being done for the widening project in FY15. Choctaw Road is being widened from two lanes to four lanes from SE 44th to SE 89th in FY15. This is to coincide with the I-40 widening project where I-40 will be widened from four lanes to six lanes beginning at the I-40 and I-240 merge eastward to the County line at mile marker 174. Choctaw and Harrah Road interchanges are being rebuilt with the loop exits removed. Choctaw Road will be getting three new red lights. One on each side of the new I-40 and one at SE 71st and Choctaw Road, right in front of the new Love's Travel Stop and the Harmony Christian Church.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

Yup.

And that's probably about the time I'll move back to Moore.

*facepalm*

[curious neighbor]

Yes. The yellow line work that is happening between SE 44th and SE 59th on the West side of choctaw Road is the gas line being moved away from the road. This is the beginning stages of the utility and right of way being done for the widening project in FY15. Choctaw Road is being widened from two lanes to four lanes from SE 44th to SE 89th in FY15. This is to coincide with the I-40 widening project where I-40 will be widened from four lanes to six lanes beginning at the I-40 and I-240 merge eastward to the County line at mile marker 174. Choctaw and Harrah Road interchanges are being rebuilt with the loop exits removed. Choctaw Road will be getting three new red lights. One on each side of the new I-40 and one at SE 71st and Choctaw Road, right in front of the new Love's Travel Stop and the Harmony Christian Church.

So what is the yellow line that is being put in along SE 89th, East of Choctaw Rd. and right next to the road? I haven't seen anything being taken out and moved? Only being put in. Along there and also along I-40 all the way from Del City Passed Choctaw Rd.

[plmccordj]

The yellow line is the same. The widening is going to go all the way to 89th and the houses are on the West at that place. The orange line you are talking about from Del City Eastward on I-40 is a fiber optic line by ONE-NET. They are the IT department of the Oklahoma Department of Education.

[aggieswife]

for the past couple of weeks, the land is being prepared! a lot of heavy equipment! anyone knows when it'll be opened? next spring?
and when will the interchange construction begin for I-40 & Choctaw?

[Mel]

If nothing else, it make the drivers and lot lizards a tad more appealing to each other.

Nothing says love like 90 proof.

[Dubya61]

Crews have completed a LOT of dirt work for the new Loves Travel Plaza. They've also put up the fueling station awnings and begun putting up walls for what I assume will be the convenience store. The dirt work either involves a lot of building up for stability on the back (west) end or Loves is gonna open up a sledding hill there when it snows.

[bombermwc]

I was out that way last weekend and noticed the amount of dirt work to the west....seemed very odd to me. It seems like it would have made more sense to use a retaining wall or even stair step it down. This way the land really can't be used for anything else....just weird.

[WilliamTell]

how big is this damn thing going to be? they just keep on building and building..does anyone have the final layouts?

[BrettM2]

how big is this damn thing going to be? they just keep on building and building..does anyone have the final layouts?

If its the Paul's Valley layout, it's a pretty large store. I don't imagine they'll build a brand new one (in a previously successful spot) and not make it the best layout they have.

[MWCGuy]

From the looks of it, they are probably building it large enough to attract truck drivers heading both east and west. I don't know if it has been noted but, the Thunder Travel Plaza is Pilot Travel Center one of Love's major competitors. That is probably having a lot to do with Love's opening such a large location. It will probably be pretty popular with truck traffic because many drivers prefer stopping on the edge of a city instead of in the middle of one. This probably take some business away from Petro with both Pilot and Loves being out on Choctaw Road.

[MFracas84]

This is the Love's site plan as was shown to us in a neighborhood meeting. We live right next to it so we get meeting invites. Also they have started the Choctaw Road widening project from 44th to 59th. They are taking some of our neighbor's land South of I-40 through eminent domain for the widening here.

I am plmccordj but have lost my login information so I had to create another account. If the board could help me get my other log in password back, I could post from that account.

[MFracas84]

For some reason the site plan didn't show up. I have it on my Flickr page below...

site_plan | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[kevinpate]

It's a big one all right. Then again, given the anticipated traffic they could probably go bigger if they had enough space to do so.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

A McDonalds?

DAMMIT.

/wanted a Taco Bell

[Dubya61]

Looks like they poured the parking lot last week and put up signage on the weekend for McDonalds and Loves with an "Open Soon" banner across the Loves sign. The heart facing the city was even lit up for a while.