I-35 / I-240 Exchange

[Plutonic Panda]

Anyone??? Thanks in advance.

ODOT has plans to basically start the rest of the phases next year. My guess is that they let the contract to bid and groundbreaking to start either spring or the summer with major construction beginning within a month or two. Hopefully this project will be in full swing by the fall or winter of 2023.

[BoulderSooner]

Anyone??? Thanks in advance.

https://www.odot.org/cwp-8-year-plan...ictokc_map.pdf

I-35: AT THE I-240 JCT. RECONST INTERCHG.
JP# 903206 FFY 2023 INTERCHANGE $ 28,840,000
JP# 903207 FFY 2023 INTERCHANGE $ 30,900,000
JP# 903208 FFY 2023 INTERCHANGE $ 30,900,000
$ 90,640,000

[Prunesmoothie]

New FY started July 1st so construction could start at anytime?

https://www.odot.org/cwp-8-year-plan...ictokc_map.pdf

I-35: AT THE I-240 JCT. RECONST INTERCHG.
JP# 903206 FFY 2023 INTERCHANGE $ 28,840,000
JP# 903207 FFY 2023 INTERCHANGE $ 30,900,000
JP# 903208 FFY 2023 INTERCHANGE $ 30,900,000
$ 90,640,000

[LakeEffect]

New FY started July 1st so construction could start at anytime?

FFY is Federal Fiscal Year, which starts October 1.

[HOT ROD]

any renders

[G.Walker]

They should get started on this soon, since funding isn't an issue with billions of infrastructure aid coming to Oklahoma.

This should get started in the Spring of 2023.

[clz46]

I can't tell if the bridge over belle isle/Penn Square area is on that list. I understood that was suppose to be lowered to ground level.

[BoulderSooner]

I can't tell if the bridge over belle isle/Penn Square area is on that list. I understood that was suppose to be lowered to ground level.

i don't believe this is a thing that has ever been approved ...

[LakeEffect]

i don't believe this is a thing that has ever been approved ...

ODOT staff have talked about it, in industry luncheons, but they haven't ever settled on a design choice. As far as I'm aware, I don't think they've even finished their analysis of alternatives...

[Pete]

[Laramie]

I-35/I-240 Crossroads interchange project in south Oklahoma City; http://www.poeandassociates.com/port...ts/221/view/52

I-35/I-240 Crossroads interchange project in south Oklahoma City; https://oklahoma.gov/odot/citizen/ma...newal-240.html

Are there any updates pics to I-35/I-240 crossroads Interchange project. Haven't seen much in the way of progress, BoulderSooner, Rte66man have you or anyone come across any more information on this interchange.

[Plutonic Panda]

^^^ Laramie, thank you for posting that graphic but it is incredibly out of date. Much of it now isn't even scheduled to start until 2025 which is absurd.

[SoonerDave]

^^^ Laramie, thank you for posting that graphic but it is incredibly out of date. Much of it now isn't even scheduled to start until 2025 which is absurd.

Absolutely **ridiculous**. No other word for it. This needed to be done *ten years* ago. That's the price the area pays for not being N. OKC.

[Plutonic Panda]

Absolutely **ridiculous**. No other word for it. This needed to be done *ten years* ago. That's the price the area pays for not being N. OKC.

Yep. I was livid when I saw the new plan.

[BoulderSooner]

Phase II, III, IV in FFY 25

I-35: OVER THE I-240 JCT. (PHASE II) RECONST INTERCHG.
09032(06) FFY 2025
OKLAHOMA Div. 4 IS035 0.500 Mi. Let 04/2025 $38,160,000.00

I-35 @ THE I-240 JCT (PHASE III) RECONST INTERCHG. SMC
09032(07) FFY 2025 90/10
OKLAHOMA Div. 4 IS035 0.500 Mi. Let 04/2025 $27,560,000.00

I-35 @ THE I-240 JCT (PHASE IV)RECONST INTERCHG
09032(08) FFY 2025
OKLAHOMA Div. 4 IS035 0.500 Mi. Let 04/2025 $27,560,000.00

[bombermwc]

Yeah im kinda pissed that they keep pushing this back.

Am i looking forward to the mess it's going to create, hecks no. But there always seems to be a reason to bump parts of this one. And hopefully they do a better job than they did with the first phase. That's the bumpiest new asphalt ive ever seen. And what's dumb is that you could see how it was going to be bumpy. They didn't grade the land smoothly and just laid the asphalt on top...so bump city you get. I can't believe someone didn't inspect this or if they did, allowed it to pass.

[Video Expert]

While we have differing opinions on the root causes of why Oklahoma road projects keep getting pushed or are constantly underfunded, Panda is correct about how ridiculously cheap and short sighted ODOT has been for decades. There's no excuse that this interchange...a major Interstate and an Urban Interstate loop inside the largest Metropolitan area in the State, has remained a basic cloverleaf since constructed the mid-late 1960s and here we are in 2022 and the reconstruction project keeps getting pushed and pushed further out. Everyone who drives or has ever driven in this area knows it is an extremely dangerous interchange as is, and was not designed to ever carry anywhere near the amount of traffic it does currently.

I know Panda loves 5 stacks and you can't drive more than a few miles anywhere in DFW without encountering one that's been around for some time or one that's under construction, but why has ODOT continually skimped on road projects and upgrades going back decades? Hell, I'd be ecstatic with a few 3-4 stacks at this point. To have only one phase of this project completed to date is ridiculous. It should have been upgraded during the I-35 widening project that began in 1989 and was completed a few years ago. All they have done in 50+ years is buy out and demolish the houses on the NW side of the interchange and build the EB 240 to SB 35 portion...the cheap portion with no bridges.

And it's not just this interchange. I-40/I-44 interchange is also ridiculous and outdated. You go from a 10 lane Interstate from the East down to a four lane for thru traffic WB because they were too cheap to rebuild or add lanes to the existing overpasses/bridges over I-44 when they reconstructed the I-40 Crosstown. I-44 N and S bound goes from 8 lanes to 4 as well and has for decades when they extended the old I-244 (currently I-44) north of I-40. That's why that interchange has been a dangerous bottleneck going back many years. Face it...it's the bridges/overpasses that cost the most and need the extra Right of Way. That's why ODOT just loves 1950's era Cloverleafs all those "Left Exits"...so they can build low budget at grade ramps with only a single bridge/overpass or none at all in some cases. Left exit's are fine when you're exiting on Business 40 to go into Clinton or El Reno, but not for two major Interstates carrying over 100,000 vehicles per day total inside a city as large as OKC.

While they're finally doing something about US75 and I-44 in Tulsa after all these years, when are they going to upgrade the BA and I-44 interchange that's massively outdated? How about an upgrade to I-35...maybe one of the busiest corridors for commercial trucking in the nation, in the area between the Ft. Smith junction and the I-44/I-35 Interchange? Other than reconfiguring the NE 23rd circle over I-35 a few years back, this 4 lane stretch of I-35 has remained virtually the same since it was constructed in the late 1950s. In fact, this was the first stretch of Interstate built in Oklahoma after passage of the Eisenhower Federal Highway Act of 1956. And you can tell by looking at the overpasses over 10th and 23rd how old it actually is.

And the OTA is not far behind when it comes to being cheap even though bonds and user tolls pay for those roads. Having no direct exit built in 1992 from Southbound US 77 to E.B. JKT was cheap and short sighted. Same with the Interchange of the JKT and the Lake Hefner Parkway. It's absurd that one must exit the JKT going Westbound to a traffic light, and then get on the LHP going southbound from there. Same going NB LHP to WB JKT. I know JKT didn't exist west of LHP when it was first constructed, but they always knew they were going to expand JKT Westbound and should have budgeted to reconfigure that interchange when they did the extension.

Ok...I'm done. Had to get that off my chest. Sorry I deviated away from the I-35/I-240 discussion in all that. Thank you.

[HangryHippo]

While we have differing opinions on the root causes of why Oklahoma road projects keep getting pushed or are constantly underfunded, Panda is correct about how ridiculously cheap and short sighted ODOT has been for decades. There's no excuse that this interchange...a major Interstate and an Urban Interstate loop inside the largest Metropolitan area in the State, has remained a basic cloverleaf since constructed the mid-late 1960s and here we are in 2022 and the reconstruction project keeps getting pushed and pushed further out. Everyone who drives or has ever driven in this area knows it is an extremely dangerous interchange as is, and was not designed to ever carry anywhere near the amount of traffic it does currently.

I know Panda loves 5 stacks and you can't drive more than a few miles anywhere in DFW without encountering one that's been around for some time or one that's under construction, but why has ODOT continually skimped on road projects and upgrades going back decades? Hell, I'd be ecstatic with a few 3-4 stacks at this point. To have only one phase of this project completed to date is ridiculous. It should have been upgraded during the I-35 widening project that began in 1989 and was completed a few years ago. All they have done in 50+ years is buy out and demolish the houses on the NW side of the interchange and build the EB 240 to SB 35 portion...the cheap portion with no bridges.

And it's not just this interchange. I-40/I-44 interchange is also ridiculous and outdated. You go from a 10 lane Interstate from the East down to a four lane for thru traffic WB because they were too cheap to rebuild or add lanes to the existing overpasses/bridges over I-44 when they reconstructed the I-40 Crosstown. I-44 N and S bound goes from 8 lanes to 4 as well and has for decades when they extended the old I-244 (currently I-44) north of I-40. That's why that interchange has been a dangerous bottleneck going back many years. Face it...it's the bridges/overpasses that cost the most and need the extra Right of Way. That's why ODOT just loves 1950's era Cloverleafs all those "Left Exits"...so they can build low budget at grade ramps with only a single bridge/overpass or none at all in some cases. Left exit's are fine when you're exiting on Business 40 to go into Clinton or El Reno, but not for two major Interstates carrying over 100,000 vehicles per day total inside a city as large as OKC.

While they're finally doing something about US75 and I-44 in Tulsa after all these years, when are they going to upgrade the BA and I-44 interchange that's massively outdated? How about an upgrade to I-35...maybe one of the busiest corridors for commercial trucking in the nation, in the area between the Ft. Smith junction and the I-44/I-35 Interchange? Other than reconfiguring the NE 23rd circle over I-35 a few years back, this 4 lane stretch of I-35 has remained virtually the same since it was constructed in the late 1950s. In fact, this was the first stretch of Interstate built in Oklahoma after passage of the Eisenhower Federal Highway Act of 1956. And you can tell by looking at the overpasses over 10th and 23rd how old it actually is.

And the OTA is not far behind when it comes to being cheap even though bonds and user tolls pay for those roads. Having no direct exit built in 1992 from Southbound US 77 to E.B. JKT was cheap and short sighted. Same with the Interchange of the JKT and the Lake Hefner Parkway. It's absurd that one must exit the JKT going Westbound to a traffic light, and then get on the LHP going southbound from there. Same going NB LHP to WB JKT. I know JKT didn't exist west of LHP when it was first constructed, but they always knew they were going to expand JKT Westbound and should have budgeted to reconfigure that interchange when they did the extension.

Ok...I'm done. Had to get that off my chest. Sorry I deviated away from the I-35/I-240 discussion in all that. Thank you.

All of it is spot on!

[Plutonic Panda]

Video Expert, you hit the nail on the head! As much as I love five stacks I’d be more than thrilled to just see a 3 stack. This interchange is probably one of, if not the most, needed road project in the entire state.

[chssooner]

A big reason is that federal transport dollars don't come to Oklahoma. For some reason, we don't get money the same way Texas does, or even in proportion. I don't know why that is, but it causes delays all the time.

[Scott5114]

A big reason is that federal transport dollars don't come to Oklahoma. For some reason, we don't get money the same way Texas does, or even in proportion. I don't know why that is, but it causes delays all the time.

I'm not sure exactly how it works these days, but in the initial Interstate construction era, it was set up so that for every $1 the state contributes, they'd get $9 in federal money. If the current system works the same way, Texas would be getting a bunch of federal money from that simply because they have a larger tax base and are willing to spend more money. Some states also get that initial seed money from bonds, which isn't allowed in Oklahoma.

I think a better comparison is with Kansas, not Texas, since they have about the same land to cover, less population, but way better highways. What is Kansas doing but we're not? They have a higher gas tax, among other things.

I also think that at some point the culture at ODOT comes into play. It seems like they are not really hiring the best and brightest compared to other states. Money alone can't explain things why our road signs have screwed-up text centering, mismatched border radii of rounding, or using Type D arrows when the federal manual calls for Type A. Those aren't things that cost any extra money, just a click of a button to make a computer do it and/or doing five seconds worth of math. The lack of attention to detail on the things that are easy and free to get right makes it seem like ODOT is checked out and doesn't really care about the quality of the service they're providing.

[Plutonic Panda]

I'm not sure exactly how it works these days, but in the initial Interstate construction era, it was set up so that for every $1 the state contributes, they'd get $9 in federal money. If the current system works the same way, Texas would be getting a bunch of federal money from that simply because they have a larger tax base and are willing to spend more money. Some states also get that initial seed money from bonds, which isn't allowed in Oklahoma.

I think a better comparison is with Kansas, not Texas, since they have about the same land to cover, less population, but way better highways. What is Kansas doing but we're not? They have a higher gas tax, among other things.

I also think that at some point the culture at ODOT comes into play. It seems like they are not really hiring the best and brightest compared to other states. Money alone can't explain things why our road signs have screwed-up text centering, mismatched border radii of rounding, or using Type D arrows when the federal manual calls for Type A. Those aren't things that cost any extra money, just a click of a button to make a computer do it and/or doing five seconds worth of math. The lack of attention to detail on the things that are easy and free to get right makes it seem like ODOT is checked out and doesn't really care about the quality of the service they're providing.

This post x1000!

Every time I am in Kansas I am impressed with their road network.

[Scott5114]

This post x1000!

Every time I am in Kansas I am impressed with their road network.

To me, this little note I found on a KDOT plan sheet really speaks to the professionalism of how KDOT operates. Not only do they have a standard practice for situations like this, they feel the need to call out when they deviate from it.



I've never seen a note like that on an ODOT plan sheet. Nor would I ever expect to.

[Bunty]

A big reason is that federal transport dollars don't come to Oklahoma. For some reason, we don't get money the same way Texas does, or even in proportion. I don't know why that is, but it causes delays all the time.

I hope other Oklahoma federal legislators have done so, but Sen. Inhofe is the only one I know of that has directed millions to Oklahoma for highways and other infrastructure. The person most likely to replace him, Mullin, should be asked if he wants more federal highway construction funds directed to Oklahoma or instead supports fiscal restraint with federal money. I pay federal taxes every year, so don't mind some of it coming back.

[HOT ROD]

I40/I35/I235 qualifies (barely) as a 3 stack and there is a 5 stack in NW OKC and a new 4 stack that should have been a 5 at I44/I235, but I agree wholeheartedly, as many freeway interchanges OKC has they should be better built.

I40/I44 is an embarrassment, right close to the main focal point of the city outside of downtown (ie Will Rogers World Airport/Fairgrounds area). Not that looks only matter but it does showcase ODOTs commitment to freeway development - especially when you consider this is in the state's largest city/metro area and capital city.