Road Contruction, Somebody please explain

[OUHOMER]

too me how these contracts work.
they have been working on SW 59th Between Portland and Macarthur for well over a year. Replacing the bridge on Meridian over sw59th.

Now i understand this takes time etc. But why in the hell arent they working on it :mad: . I drive by everyday for the last fews months nothing is being done.

There maybe a few guys every now and than working on the north bound bridge, but thats it.

I dont get it. they should have everything done by now. WHY ARE THEY NOT WORKING IT. At the very least they should have all the road work done up to the bridge. :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

it sucks only having one way in and one way out of the airport.

[Flagstaffsooner]

I'd like to know that too. On Tue and Wed they ripped out the street that I live on. They havent done a damn thing since. My street is MX track and I have to go 4X to pull up into the driveway.

[SteelClip49]

Memorial and Penn had this for a long time....finally got done; Broadway Extension will never get done; construction galore going on between OKC and Edmond going north of Quail Springs between May and Western on all the nigh number streets going east-west....more business and homes leading to widening of the roads....orange orange orange everywhere. It will never end and it is constant chaos. AND WHEN WILL THE DAMN POTHOLES GET FIXED?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[Harry Beanbag]

It took them 15 years to widen a ten mile stretch of I-35. Just be patient. :)

[OUHOMER]

I understand it takes time, weather delays etc. But if you are going to start a project, why not finish it. I think the city, state etc, should tighten up the dead lines on these projects. This do a little here and a little here is BS. This tear up a road and than leave just ****es me off.

[soonerboomer93]

lowest bid...

[royalfan5]

I understand it takes time, weather delays etc. But if you are going to start a project, why not finish it. I think the city, state etc, should tighten up the dead lines on these projects. This do a little here and a little here is BS. This tear up a road and than leave just ****es me off.

Does Oklahoma give bonuses to companies for early completion? They do that a lot up here in Omaha, and it has lead to drastic improvements in pace.

[Blue]

I-40 through Arkansas took about 20 years. Same for Pensacola Florida. 20 years of construction.

It reminds me of the movie falling down. "There's nothing wrong with this road is there?!"

[OUHOMER]

Does Oklahoma give bonuses to companies for early completion? They do that a lot up here in Omaha, and it has lead to drastic improvements in pace.

Apparently NOT :mad:

[SoonerStormchaser]

Oklahoma roads...where they don't fix em til they've disintegrated!

[NormanPride]

Downtown Tulsa is the same. It's been a mess for a long time, and they're pushing the deadline of "by the time the BOk Center opens". :mad:

[Sooner_Havok]

Heh, up in Yukon they have been working on a new 10th street bridge over I-40 for the last 14-18 months. still not done, but it looks like it might open by December/January.

This is why I say we have nothing to fear about this NAFTA super highway. It has to come through Oklahoma, so we got a good 25-30 years to fight the damn thing :D

[TexasSooner01]

Who knows there could be issues with the contract itself. There was a beltway being built here in Houston that took like 3 years to complete because the company who was in charge of the project went belly up and left the job undone...then it took the state forEVAR to get another company to finish it....

[Curly Bill]

As someone that has lived about equally in both Texas and Oklahoma, find things to like about both, but generally prefer Oklahoma, just let me say that the roads in Oklahoma...well, they SUCK!

[Sooner_Havok]

Who knows there could be issues with the contract itself. There was a beltway being built here in Houston that took like 3 years to complete because the company who was in charge of the project went belly up and left the job undone...then it took the state forEVAR to get another company to finish it....

3 years, damn. You guys build em fast down there. It is scheduled to take 4 1/2 to build our new cross town. I say it will be closer to 6

[OULenexaman]

It took them 15 years to widen a ten mile stretch of I-35. Just be patient. :)


you sure about that??.....I'm thinking closer to 25...

[OUMallen]

As my Great Uncle, Oklahoma State Highway Commission in 1980, used to say:

"Yeah...but just imagine how great it'll be when they finish!"

/spoken like a true highway commish

[soonerbrat]

when i was in high school (1987), they started widening I-35 from downtown to Norman. They said it would take 7 years. is it finished?

[TexasSooner01]

3 years, damn. You guys build em fast down there. It is scheduled to take 4 1/2 to build our new cross town. I say it will be closer to 6

That was just the section of the road by my side of town...it wasnt the whole thing...that took about 7 years to get the whole beltway completed... The whole purpose of this new beltway was to take traffic off of the other main highways into the west/SW side of Houston...It didnt work...this "new beltway" stays just as gridlocked as the rest of the highways here.

[bluedogok]

As someone that has lived about equally in both Texas and Oklahoma, find things to like about both, but generally prefer Oklahoma, just let me say that the roads in Oklahoma...well, they SUCK!
They suck down here as well, anyone remember how long the repaving (no widening) of I-35 from the Red River to Denton took? I remember it taking about 15 years.

It actually takes Texas longer to build a road than Oklahoma from assessment of need, to completion of construction. My dad (highway designer for 35 years, private engr. firm, not ODOT) said they had jobs they started in Texas and put on the shelf for 10 years, then they would have to completely redo the plans because Texas sat so long on the project. Right now TxDOT is under threat of being "sunsetted" and being disbanded because of a $1 BILLION accounting error for this years budget. That and they use that chip seal crap all over the place down here which is nothing more than a scam, it doesn't extend the life of a road and makes them more dangerous.


Who knows there could be issues with the contract itself. There was a beltway being built here in Houston that took like 3 years to complete because the company who was in charge of the project went belly up and left the job undone...then it took the state forEVAR to get another company to finish it....
That is very likely the case, it could be a City of OKC project and they are even more screwed up than ODOT.


3 years, damn. You guys build em fast down there. It is scheduled to take 4 1/2 to build our new cross town. I say it will be closer to 6
The Houston Beltway is a toll road. As I stated in another thread, this is because of the funding model, toll roads are built very fast because they are fully funded at start of construction and the quicker that they start earning revenue, the quicker the bonds get paid down. "Free" roads are funded in yearly increments so they can only build up to the budget for that year AND funding has to be approved yearly so a project could be terminated or reduced in scale. The Kilpatrick Turnpike was built fast and accelerated the construction of the Lake Hefner Parkway because the funding for the interchange at Memorial Road was moved to the toll road project, therefore the funding that was slated for the LHP/Memorial interchange was moved to other parts of the road.

Ben White (US290/TX71) here in South Austin has been under construction as long as my wife has lived here, that is 15 years and they are still working on it. Plus, they only built half the flyovers tying it into I-35 and Mopac so it still isn't "close" to being completed.

[Curly Bill]

Makes me want to head back to the Texas Panhandle -- not so much traffic and the roads are quite good.

[SoonerInKCMO]

Yeah, but do y'all get steel plates covering potholes for a year at a time like we do in downtown KCMO?

[Curly Bill]

On I-40 there are 1' wide, 2' deep canyons separating the road road itself from the bridges it meets up with.