Rural roads a priority for ODOT
Oklahoma has one of the largest amounts of highway mileage to maintain of any state in the nation, but for decades this necessary infrastructure was underfunded. In one of the greatest turnaround stories of the past decade, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation partnered with the state Legislature, communities, local and county governments, tribal nations and the Federal Highway Administration to reverse this course and provide critical updates to highways and bridges statewide.
The first step in the turnaround was tackling structurally deficient bridges on the state highway system. In the early 2000s, Oklahoma was 48th in the nation for bridge conditions.
Today, we rank in the top 10 nationally for good bridge conditions.
As a result, school districts no longer worry about school buses crossing state highway bridges and motorists can count on this infrastructure to get them where they need to be safely.
Since 2000, ODOT’s Eight-Year Construction Work Plan has helped the agency stay on target for improving highways statewide. ODOT has already improved 175 miles of rural two-lane highways in the past two years with 1,100 more miles being addressed by 2032.
We know that this work is more than just facts and figures.
It’s about the people who rely daily on our highway system for every facet of their lives. ODOT is committed to not just modernizing its system but also to funding ongoing maintenance to keep our highway network safe and efficient for as long as possible.
ODOT is responsible for more than 12,000 miles of interstates, U.S. highways and state highways while the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority is responsible for nearly 630 miles of turnpikes across Oklahoma.
Each agency handles its road and bridge projects through separate funding mechanisms to improve the transportation system for all Oklahomans. There are times when turnpikes connect to the state highway system and when that happens each agency funds its appropriate portion of the work to connect the systems.
Any claim that ODOT chooses to spend millions on turnpike projects instead of addressing the highway network is simply untrue.
The Gilcrease Expressway in Tulsa is an OTA program and, like all OTA projects, is funded by OTA and not by ODOT.
The Gilcrease Expressway was funded with bonds that are paid for with toll revenues.
At the request of USDOT, OTA, ODOT and the Federal Highway Administration jointly applied for a federal Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan that was granted in part, because of the unique privatepublic partnership that also included the city of Tulsa, Tulsa County and INCOG.
ODOT did not supply any funds to build the Gilcrease Expressway and no ODOT funds are being used to repay the TIFIA loan.
OTA very publicly transfers the annual payment amount through board action to ODOT to make the payment on the federal loan.
Allegations of OTA and ODOT “comingling funds” to pay for the Gilcrease Expressway is a complete misunderstanding of the facts.
The OTA has started its 15-year, $5 billion ACCESS Oklahoma plan. This is an OTA program that is not funded by ODOT.
Any suggestion that ODOT is paying for an OTA program instead of working on the state’s highway system is not fact-based. The opposite is true. Because Oklahoma’s turnpike system is a pay-as-you-go network funded by bonds, OTA actually makes it possible for ODOT to meet state highway system needs that otherwise likely would go unmet for years, if not decades.
With the resources we have available, ODOT strives to make meaningful impacts to the highway network. Rural two-lane highways are important to ODOT, and we are committed to addressing these roads and statewide safety. In fact, 54% of the work in our Eight-Year Construction Work Plan is dedicated to improvements to rural two-lane highways, as well as safety and operations for the entire highway network. While we work year-round to improve the highway system, we also ask drivers to do their part by buckling up, putting down distractions and giving the road their full attention.
Rural two-lane highways are important to ODOT, and we are committed to addressing these roads and statewide safety.