OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (02/2016)  – A new $80 million, 4-mile Oklahoma City Boulevard, with interchanges connecting to the relocated Interstate-40 Crosstown Corridor in downtown Oklahoma City, will improve access to the downtown central business district.

“The new boulevard reconnects downtown to multiple interstates,” says Brian Taylor, Oklahoma Department of Transportation Division 4 Engineer. “With a project of this size, there are a lot of challenges.”

The new $680 million, ground level, 4.5-mile, 10-lane I-40 Crosstown runs seven blocks south of the former elevated alignment. It is one of the largest projects in the department’s history, since the completion of the interstate system in the 1970s. ODOT decided to relocate the 1960s-era expressway, because the bridge structure was deteriorating. Plans for the I-40 Crosstown began in 1995, construction started in 2005, and it opened to traffic in 2012.

“The old Crosstown was getting to the point that we were not comfortable with it anymore,” Taylor says. “We had to move traffic off of it, and there was not a good way to reconstruct it in place and maintain traffic. It was a long structure and fracture critical in places.”

The department had spent a significant amount of time and effort trying to maintain the bridge and traffic before replacing the road. During decommissioning, more than 2,000 bridge beams were removed and repurposed, some into buildings and some into county bridges.

While the new crosstown improved safety and capacity, it resulted in fewer exits serving the downtown area. This boulevard project helps to improve access.

Read the full article and learn more on how Benham, formerly Leidos,  is helping improve access to downtown Oklahoma City.

Wood, Debra. "Oklahoma DOT Improves Downtown Connectivity with $80M Oklahoma City Boulevard." Construction News. Associated Construction Publications, LLC. Feb. 2016.
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