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What freeway expansion?? The only new miles of super highway getting built in Oklahoma lately have been modest additions to turnpikes. That involves OTA, not ODOT. IIRC, the last piece of newly constructed freeway in Oklahoma was the I-40 re-alignment in Downtown OKC. And that was an extremely necessary project.
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Lawton sure isn't a city equipped for any more than bus service. There isn't exactly a hell of a lot of people using our existing bus service. It has to be pretty heavily subsidized by the government. There is no novelty or sense of convenience in standing at a bus stop out in the weather for however long it takes for the bus to arrive. Been there, done that. I did 5 years of commuting in NYC, riding the bus, the Staten Island Ferry and the subways. Waiting on the bus is the thing I miss the very least. That totally sucked.
OkDOT should be preserving ROW for new freeways in Lawton in the future if growth ever warrants. Lawton has potential if they market themselves right.
Lawton has the potential to be double its size in population and development. But various local and state powers can't get out of the way. Plus there's so much land that is off limits for new development because it is owned either by tribes or by the Army. The main directions where Lawton can grow is farther West and Southwest, both of which conveniently fall outside of city limits. The nation's brick and mortar retail apocalypse as well as Lawton's very outdated overlay district rules for downtown are keeping a suffocating lid on downtown re-development.
There is plenty of open space on the North side of Rogers Lane to turn that glorified street into a 4-lane or 6-lane freeway flanked by frontage roads. Along Rogers Lane between the Fort Sill Blvd and Sheridan Rd exits there used to be a housing area on Fort Sill called Artillery Village. Almost all that housing was torn down years ago. There's all kinds of wide open space on the other side of the sound walls.
I'm kind of surprised the US Army hasn't pushed to have both Rogers Lane and I-44 improved. Rogers Lane runs along the South edge of Fort Sill. I-44 runs North-South through Fort Sill. The design of I-44 in the area of the Key Gate exit is badly obsolete. The reason I'm surprised the Army hasn't pushed for improvements (or maybe they did unsuccessfully) is that various other major military installations around the country have substantial super highways running along their borders and even entering their posts in some cases. If Rogers Lane and I-44 were properly improved along and thru Fort Sill the interchange between Rogers Lane and I-44 would be a signature design opportunity to show off some kind of military tribute theme. For instance the I-110 interchange with I-10 in Pensacola has models of Blue Angels F-18 Hornet jets installed on flyover bridge piers. It's pretty cool. They could do something visual for the Field Artillery and Air Defense Artillery here.
One nearer term goal with Rogers Lane actually in the works is extending Rogers Lane from its current West end at US-62 and down to Goodyear Blvd to give traffic in the industrial park an alternative outlet to I-44. Right now much of that industrial park traffic uses Lee Blvd and 82nd Street to either go East or South to get to I-44. 82nd Street in particular South of Lee Blvd down to OK-36 is just completely beat to shit from all the truck traffic. The road is bad enough that it is damaging trucks. Big companies like Goodyear are now complaining loudly about it. It's a county maintained road; it's barely a step from being a gravel road.
So really, Lawton not only needs Rogers Lane improved to Interstate standards, the city needs an outlet South out of the Industrial park over to I-44. They could start that out as a Super-2 like the Duncan Bypass with or without limited access exits and just upgrade as needed. Getting the ROW secured is what matters.
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Topic: OKDOT Agency News (Read 29207 times)