OKC Boulevard opens to drivers
Drivers can now cruise Oklahoma City Boulevard.
State and local officials on Monday celebrated the completion of a 25- yearold transportation project that transformed downtown Oklahoma City with the Interstate 40 Crosstown reconstruction.
I- 40 and the Crosstown bridge once cut off development near the Myriad Gardens and the Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt said. Now, there's plenty of room to grow.
“Really, this boulevard has become so much more than a road,” he said. “This relocation project touched off a whole opportunity for Oklahoma City to rebuild a major part of its central business district without really displacing much.”
The completed fourlane boulevard connects to I- 40 and Interstate 235 near Bricktown and connects to the interstate on the west end near Pennsylvania Avenue. The opening ceremony Monday celebrated the completion of the final,
$27 million piece of the $730 million project.
Boulevard construction started in 2012 and consisted of five phases.
Gov. Kevin St it ts aid Monday was a historic day because it marked the completion of the state's largest transportation project since construction began on Oklahoma's interstate system in the 1960s.
“The I-40 Crosstown and Oklahoma City Boulevard project gave our capital city a rare opportunity that most cities don't get — a chance to do something big and bold f rom the ground up,” Stitt said.
While the street is open to the public, the corridor still needs one final touch — 996 new trees and other landscaping alongside the new boulevard, Holt said.
Oklahoma City will put up $4 million to beautify the corridor with the landscaping work to begin next month. Landscaping and installation of traffic signals may cause intermittent lane closures through September.
Altogether, t he road will pair nicely with the completion of Scissortail Park and other developments near the river, Holt said.
“We have built this park and this convention center and this Omni Hotel and that's just the building blocks and the foundation of many more projects we believe that are to come,” he said. “There's a lot of opportunities out here.”