UPDATE: Since we posted this update earlier this week, we had a couple of reader questions. Here are the answers supplied by Jack Damrill, communications director, Oklahoma Turnpike Authority.
- I can’t tell from the map what the blue line on 164th street going west from Luther Road signifies, do you know?
DAMRILL: “The blue lines either signify the right-of-way or in this case, we are making improvements to streets like 164th in order to provide access for local residents to their property. But in most cases, we are making improvements to the city streets.”
- Why aren’t they donating parts of the houses like cabinets, doors, windows etc. to Habitat for Humanity? It’s a shame to see useful things being put in dumpsters and trucked to the dump. Also, why can’t people get permission or permits to remove trees to be used for firewood? It’s a shame to see such wastefulness.
DAMRILL: Logistics of acquiring the property and then demolishing the property make it unfeasible to team with organizations like Habitat. Once we acquire the property, we must work as quickly as possible to bring the house down for several reasons. We don’t want that property to become a nuisance for the area residents and we must also have that property go through an environmental remediation process for 14 days. During that process, it’s possible asbestos and other material must be remediated from the house. Therefore, it would make providing for those organizations unsafe to allow people in the house to take portions. Once the environmental process is complete, we try to take the house down as soon as possible to help prevent looters from going in. No matter how fast we move, we still have people go in and loot the house. It all goes back to logistics and timing.
All has been quiet on the news front when it comes to the Driving Forward Turnpike project. But there’s been plenty of activity along the route of the North East Oklahoma County toll road as homes and buildings have been destroyed. Property owners are actively negotiating with the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority to sell to make way for the new 21-mile toll road to connect I-40 to I-44.
The North East Oklahoma County Turnpike portion of the Driving Forward website shows no new updates. There’s a status report from a year ago and a map posted in May of this year.
According to Jack Damrill, OTA communications director, the May 2017 map posted is unchanged. Damrill also provided some other updates about the new toll road.
He said 45 structures have been demolished out of 84 set to come down. There have been 97 parcels acquired from 88 landowners (88 total takes and 16 partial takes). Damrill said OTA remains in the acquisition of property phase and will start the bid process soon for other contracts.
The project is on schedule, he said, with the first phase of construction set to begin in February or March of 2018. And where will that be? Starting on the north end, the first work on the toll road will be the I-44/Turner Turnpike interchange. The new turnpike will connect the Turner between Luther Road and Dobbs at about 164th.
Damrill said there will NOT be any exits in that location, just the interchange between turnpikes.
“The land on the north end of the pike is really not able to accompany frontage roads. We will be replacing the current Luther Road bridge over the Turner Turnpike that will be higher and wider,” said Damrill.
He said interchanges will be at “I-40 and the exits at 29th, Reno, 23rd and Britton Road.”
The $480 million project announced in late 2015 involves six individual projects including the North East Oklahoma County toll road, as outlined by former OTA Director Neal McCaleb in a Luther Register story from January 2016. That project caused a firestorm of protest that started with a petition drive and ended unsuccessfully at the State Supreme Court.
Damrill said OTA will sell another round of bonds in December, “That will be the second of three bond sales with the final one in late 2018.” The turnpike project is being funded by the bonds and increased tolls on the state’s other turnpikes.
Thanks for the update. I know several people thought there would be new ramps at the new connection. I can’t tell from the map what the blue line on 164th street going west from Luther Road signifies, do you know? I am hoping it means they will put the connection from 164th street to hogback road back in. Right now you have to drive in a circle back to 150th street to get to hogback road.
Why aren’t they donating parts of the houses like cabinets, doors, windows etc. to Habitat for Humanity? It’s a shame to see useful things being put in dumpsters and trucked to the dump. Also, why can’t people get permission or permits to remove trees to be used for firewood? It’s a shame to see such wastefulness.
Thank you Dawn.
Your concern of looters sounds like a cop out. What is there to loot in an empty house, cabinets and doors? I’ve heard stories where people asked the demolition people for items, but we’re turned away only to see the demolition people take the cabinets, doors and other item for themselves. I’m sure if a date and time was set up with Habitat, there would be someone there to retrieve the items. It seems the Turnpike Authority has upset and hurt so many people, can’t they take a little time to help others and wouldn’t it be tax deductible?
Also, you didn’t answer my question about why people can’t have the trees for firewood.
Just seems like a lot of waste going on with nothing but political bull crap as an excuse.
Taking all of this land from this far north, and there will not even be an entrance or exit in the Luther area. The closest one will be Britton. Kind-of sounds like a big middle finger to the Luther area. The least they could do is give us an interchange, so it would have the potential to help the area economically.
What affect will the turnpike have on streets like 29th and 44th? Many take these to and from work, will they leave them alone or will we have to find other ways? This turnpike thing is ridiculous.