Motorists in Tulsa, Okla. will see construction on the Interstate 44/Highway 75 interchange later this year.
Improvements to the interchange have been at a standstill for a little over a year as the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) prepares for the second phase of the construction project.
In phase one, the base of what will be the flyover ramps that help drivers get from one highway to the other were finished.
"We will complete those flyover ramps in the next phase of this project, but we're also going to do a lot more in the area to finish this work altogether," ODOT Spokesman T.J. Gerlach said.
According to Gerlach, bidding for the project will begin in the summer, and work will begin by Nov. of this year.
"These next phases will take years, likely it won't wrap up until well into 2027," Gerlach said.
The next phase doesn't just include completion of the flyover ramps. There are also going to be improvements to I-44 over the Arkansas River, a new pedestrian bridge that will allow people to travel under Highway 75 and reconnects west Tulsa neighborhoods currently divided by Highway 75, and the addition of other lanes to both Highway 75 and I-44.
"We are ready to move on it later this year," Gerlach said. "There will be times when there will be lane closures, but we don't expect the heavy impacts we saw when the bridge over I-44 needed replacing while we took care of I-44 itself at the same time."
Gerlach said ODOT will try to alert drivers ahead of time of any traffic flow changes, but it will be dependent on how the contractor builds what they are hired to do.
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Source: Fox23.com
