Project Status
On January 5, 2012 eastbound was transferred to the new alignment with westbound following on February 19.
In May 2002, federal funding was secured to finance replacement of the Oklahoma City Crosstown. Rather than replace the existing structure, a new stretch of I-40 will be constructed about five blocks south of the current location. Initial estimates of the Crosstown replacement project were that the project would take 8 years with a completion date of 2010, and would cost $360 million dollars. The most recent revision to this estimate was released in July 2007, and indicated that the project will be completed in 2012 and will cost $557 million. The ground-level boulevard to replace the current Crosstown bridges is no longer included in the cost estimates. The new Crosstown will have ten lanes for traffic traveling at 70 miles per hour (110 km/h), despite the current speed limit of 60 mph. It is being designed to carry 170,000 vehicles per day, and will have shoulders for disabled vehicles. Over 95% of current traffic on the Crosstown is through traffic, not transferring to or from downtown streets.
More recently, the Crosstown project has come under serious controversy. In an era of fluctuating energy prices and changing circumstances, several citizen's groups are challenging the project. Devon Energy announced in March 2008 it would construct a one million square foot office tower in the center of a revitalized downtown to house between 2,000 and 3,000 of its employees. The Devon location will be ten blocks away from the interstate instead of four blocks, resulting in increased congestion on slower downtown streets during rush hour. Under current construction plans, part of Oklahoma City's Union Station railyard would be sacrificed to make space for the freeway, leading to concerns that this would disable the station from use in future light rail, commuter rail or traffic circulation use. An unprecedented ruling in June 2008 by the Federal Surface Transportation Board held that the BNSF railway made fraudulent representations in their request for abandonment of the freight line that would enable the Crosstown, and denied the abandonment. However, in May 2009 the final decision from the STB reversed the earlier ruling, allowing the ODOT to move ahead with their plans.
ODOT has not sought to redirect semitrailers off the existing I-40 stretch of deteriorating overpasses. ODOT Director Gary Ridley said the current I-40 will "absolutely" survive through 2012, the new completion target date for the realignment, adding, "If we felt there was anything wrong that would cause us concern, we would close it, and we wouldn't think twice about it." However, in a filing with STB, Ridley urged a quick ruling because "new serious issues including cracks in fracture critical members are constantly being discovered and repaired. The condition and obsolescence of the existing bridges constitutes serious concern for the Department." Other highway connections, running east and west, include I-240 and I-44.
- NOTE: Speed Limit on I-40 is 55 mph in construction zones through downtown Oklahoma City.
Read more about this topic: Oklahoma City Crosstown Expressway
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