240 Sooner/Sunnylane

**bombermwc** · 05-12-2015, 07:50 AM

So here are a few things I found out recently after having to resort to getting a councilman to answer some questions.

1 - Sooner/240 Traffic Lights - I've complained to the city off and on for a few years now that the lights are timed in the worse possible manner so that traffic on Sooner is allowed to flow through one light and the one on the other side of the bridge turns red just in time to catch the entire group. It causes back-ups of about 3/4 mile every day on northbound Sooner in the morning and a similar back-up on southbound sooner in the afternoon. All I ever asked was for someone to look into setting the timing the way every other interstate crossing uses where traffic in each direction gets a turn to completely cross. It would be even better if the bridge was a single bridge instead of two and had more frontage turn lanes, but let's start simple. After hearing for years that the city invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in traffic studies, it made sense to me to ask about this one being part of that. Especially since we've yet to see ANY progress on ANY of the designated intersections. Eventually the city simply stopped answering emails (and I wasn't asking more than once every month or two...just for SOME information at all...even a "we're not doing that" would be better than the total refusal to reply I got.

The Ward 4 council office replied that this intersection IS being evaluated, but that the stud is in its infancy. I should say so since there aren't even any traffic meters around, much less anything else going on.

2 - The even problematic rail crossing just north of 240 - same flow of complaints/questions. I got the runaround being told from the city to another agency, to another, etc. I did get SOMETHING good after the initial crossing "repair" caused a roller coaster ride from the way the approach was built. That was removed, but the asphalt put in place was already disintegrating the same day they installed it, along with huge potholes in it. The complain this time at least got a council complain lodged for someone to come out and inspect it.

3 - Sunnylane between 89th and 240 - This is an extremely busy area and it's one large massive pothole fix. You can't even go the speed limit here. I often take it as a bypass around the Sooner traffic because it's actually faster to backtrack down to 89th and go over to Sunnylane to 240 rather than wait in traffic. The problem is the state of the road surface....along with most of the SE sector's roads...JESUS!!!!!

So word here is that the 1 mile section was already tagged as part of a 2007 bond issue to expand to 4 lanes (and I'm guessing put a light in at 89th/Sunnylane, which is great compared to the stop sign. It seems a very long time to wait for a project to get started, but the construction is supposed to start later THIS year. Hopefully they get the light at Sooner/240 fixed before this mess gets started!!!!

4 - Turn lanes on Sooner - OKC has been TERRIBLE about throwing lights in on the road and not putting proper turn lanes in. Traffic at several locations backs-up behind cars waiting to turn left at several intersections and has causes numerous and frequent accidents. Here are the intersections I identified (which already have lights):
48th/Sooner - WalMart NM and The Embers
82nd/Sooner - Eagle's South and WindWood
Sooner, South of 240 to cover the Heart Hospital and gas station entrances...the FULL length of that 1/4 mile. Might as well extend it down to the 82nd junction though since it's only 1/4 more mile. This last one doesn't have a light, but has a partial turnlane and is even more of a traffic problem than the others because it's so close to the interstate intersection.

For this, I was told that the request would be sent on for the 48th intersection to the city planning dept for review. Hey that's better than nothing. As for the others, I'm going to have to send that in to ODOT since it's technically a highway south of 240. I'll do that today and see what they come up with.

**Scott5114** · 05-13-2015, 10:31 PM

Yeah, ODOT is in charge of Sooner Road south of I-240. OKC probably isn't allowed to touch it at all. It is on the books as State Highway 77H, which runs down Sooner and 12th Avenue NE in Norman, and connects to US-77 at 12th and Tecumseh. It's possible ODOT controls the signals you're having problems with as well. I don't go through there much, but it sounds a lot like the signal timing at US-62 and SH-9 south of Newcastle, so I wouldn't be surprised if ODOT had a hand in it.

If you got a hold of someone at ODOT, I'd be interested in knowing how that goes. I contacted ODOT about some missing signs once and they never bothered to reply to my email.

**bombermwc** · 05-14-2015, 07:28 AM

I just filled out the form online and asked that it be forwarded to area 4 planning. I'm sure it went into a recycle bin and will never be heard from again. Typical ODOT.

**Scott5114** · 05-14-2015, 10:51 AM

Yeah, I wouldn't expect it to do anything. Maybe try calling on the phone?

I never understood why Oklahoma County is in Division 4 but Cleveland County is in Division 3 (which is headquartered near Ada). Seems like it would make more sense to put the entire metro in one division, but what do I know?

**bombermwc** · 05-19-2015, 09:56 AM

I actually just got a reply that my question was sent to Bryan Taylor, who is the area 4 Division Engineer. So at least that's better than being ignored forever.