STATE FUNDING: Okla. launches 8-year highway program

The Oklahoma Transportation Commission has approved a $6 billion plan to improve the state’s roads and bridges.

Over the next eight years, the state will perform almost 2,000 highway and bridge construction projects, NewsOK.com reported, including replacing or rehabilitating 924 bridges and repairing 657 miles of two-lane highways and 552 miles of high-volume highways and interstates.

Oklahoma Department of Transportation officials said the plan, which makes use of federal and state funds, would make it possible to repair or replace all of the state’s structurally deficient bridges.

“We're focused on our bridge problems,” ODOT Executive Director Mike Patterson said.

The state had 1,168 structurally deficient bridges at its worst in 2004, but has reduced that number to 556 last year, partly thanks to increasing funding in 2006 from $200 million to $569 million.