Oklahoma Highways | Small projects and construction

Started by Plutonic Panda, July 14, 2016, 08:00:46 PM

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Bobby5280

Um, yeah. $6 is a hell of a typo. The cost of that project is actually supposed to be $6 million. The end result won't be worth $6 however.


Plutonic Panda

Look what I'm saying is that this will further complete Tulsa's system. As for passenger rail, I don't support the rail line proposal between the cities because it is a joke. Once they really propose HSR running down the turnpike, then I'll support that. Not like it matters anyways.

rte66man

Quote from: Bobby5280 on December 09, 2017, 03:58:36 PM
Construction on the new H.E. Bailey Turnpike toll plaza (on I-44 near mile marker 66) is finished. However OTA is not going to start operating the toll plaza until January 2018. I thought the plaza was supposed to open this fall. On a local news report they said OTA had all kinds of different testing and other work to do before bringing the new toll plaza into service. Once that plaza becomes operational OTA will demolish the old toll plaza just South of Chickasha. The demolition project will take about 3 weeks to complete. Removal of that old toll plaza will help make room for a new cloverleaf interchange that will be part of a new US-81 bypass. I don't know when construction of that bypass project will begin. Given the sorry condition of the state government's finances I imagine it could be at least a few years before construction begins.

ROW acquisition is still scheduled for FY2018.  I need to check and see if the recent changes in the 8 Year Plan have moved grading and paving out past FY2020.
When you come to a fork in the road... TAKE IT.

                                                               -Yogi Berra

Bobby5280

I visited OKC this past weekend to do a little St Patrick's Day celebrating with some friends. I was finally able to check out the new I-44 toll plaza at mile marker 66. The toll plaza buildings may be pretty plain, but the whole thing is a big improvement over the old plaza South of Chickasha. And it's quite a bit better than the I-44 toll plaza South of Newcastle. That one is fairly annoying since the single Pike Pass lanes go to the right, outside of the plaza. That creates all sorts of weaving issues between faster Pike Pass account traffic and slower cash-only vehicles driving in the right lane blocking quick access to the Pike Pass lane. OTA never should have built the toll plaza like that. They might replace it with a more effective design 4-5 years from now.

The old toll plaza just south of Chickasha has been demolished. However, there are still Jersey barriers all over the site. Construction crews are replacing the old pavement (which will get rid of the speed zone rumble strips). They're not very far along with the effort. I expect they'll be working on it well into the summer.

bugo

The Muskogee Turnpike's western toll plaza at the Coweta interchange is now complete. It's nice not having to exit off the highway to go through the Pikepass lanes.

Scott5114

Norman is in the wrong state. They've been working on upgrading our mastarm signage to comply with the 2009 MUTCD by replacing them with signs in this style:


I noticed on Saturday that they had replaced the ones at Main Street and Mercedes Drive with some in the new style. Unfortunately, the text was slightly off-center, so that the text was much closer to the top of the blade than the bottom.

Monday, I went through the same intersection, and the signs were completely gone. Presumably, they're making new ones. That's about the most un-Oklahoman signing practice I've seen. OKC or ODOT would have left it up off-center.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

Bobby5280

I haven't seen the street name signs with text positioned too close to the top. But I would bet the text on those signs had decenders on the lower case letters. A correct design would have the text vertically centered on the sign blade in reference to the capital letter "M" height. A "designer" who doesn't care about details just types out the street name and vertically centers the whole object, regardless of what letters like "g, j, p & q" can do to throw off the vertical centering. And then curvy capital letters like "O" are actually taller than squared off letters like "E."

Here in Lawton I still see street name signs going up with the lower case letters reduced down to 75% of their normal size. The sign will have a big capital letter and absurdly tiny lowercase letters. Oh, and they often don't center the lettering properly either.

Revive 755

Quote from: Scott5114 on April 25, 2018, 05:32:53 AM
Norman is in the wrong state. They've been working on upgrading our mastarm signage to comply with the 2009 MUTCD by replacing them with signs in this style:

Except they made the pictograph too big to be MUTCD compliant:

Quote from: 2009 MUTCD 2D.43 Paragraph 12If a pictograph is used on a D3-1 sign, the height and width of the pictograph shall not exceed the upper-case letter height of the principal legend of the sign.

Scott5114

Quote from: Bobby5280 on April 27, 2018, 08:51:21 PM
I haven't seen the street name signs with text positioned too close to the top. But I would bet the text on those signs had decenders on the lower case letters. A correct design would have the text vertically centered on the sign blade in reference to the capital letter "M" height.

Funny you say that: the legend was "Mercedes Dr." No descenders to blame, just someone not even bothering to hit the center button.

This isn't the first time that Norman has made a legitimate attempt at QA. There was one mastarm sign that a contractor installed that had text so horizontally compressed that it was nearly unreadable. The city quickly replaced it with one of their own signs.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

Bobby5280

Quote from: Scott5114Funny you say that: the legend was "Mercedes Dr." No descenders to blame, just someone not even bothering to hit the center button.

There's actually a good chance their shop drawings mandated the upward shift of lettering placement on all signs to make room for decenders regardless if the sign lettering had any decenders or not. Maybe someone finally took notice of how stupid the end results were looking and decided to change it.

The whole problem goes back to changes in the MUTCD mandating mixed case lettering on signs. For the longest time most small street signs were set with uppercase lettering. To save money on material the sign panels provided only a small amount of negative space around the all-caps lettering. With the rules shifted to mixed case legends the street name sign panels all needed to be significantly taller. More room was needed those decenders, especially if the line of lettering was going to be properly centered on the panel. That translates into a larger, more costly sign panel. Rather than blow more money on taller sign panels we've been seeing all sorts of design travesties influenced by cost cutting. It makes me wonder if some of those really stupid looking street name signs with very tiny lowercase letters were made that way deliberately. They saw the rule about MUTCD approved fonts (with lowercase letters 75% of the cap letter height) and took that as an opportunity to keep using narrow panels meant only for uppercase lettering.

Quote from: Scott5114This isn't the first time that Norman has made a legitimate attempt at QA. There was one mastarm sign that a contractor installed that had text so horizontally compressed that it was nearly unreadable. The city quickly replaced it with one of their own signs.

When a sign (or any piece of graphic design work) has lettering stretched or squeezed out of its original, native proportions it's a pretty good indicator an amateur or hack did the "design" work.

I'll do just about anything to avoid distorting typefaces out of their normal proportions. I can't stand the warped, fun house mirror look of distorted type. You'll see it on many garbage-quality signs, often with the lettering set in a default font like Arial Bold or Black. God forbid the "designer" scroll down in the font list to a natively condensed or extended type choice.

Two kinds of "designers" distort type: ones who don't know better and others who just don't care. The ones who don't know better can learn and improve the quality of their work. As for the ones who don't care: f### them. They need to get another job and stop visually crapping on the landscape.

Scott5114

As of last night, the old red sign had been reinstalled. What?
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

JMoses24

Quote from: Scott5114 on May 09, 2018, 06:47:18 PM
As of last night, the old red sign had been reinstalled. What?

I'll be in Norman Wednesday night. I'll check on it.

Scott5114

The red sign is still there as of 2:30 AM today–but the green signs remain on the cross street. It is odd.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

Scott5114

ODOT appears to be experimenting with enhanced mileposts on I-35 between Purcell and Norman. Rather than the MoDOT practice of posting them every .2 miles, they are posted at the .0 and .5s only. On the .0 posts, the decimal panel is omitted entirely.

When I went to Purcell on Thursday, they had only been posted down to exit 98 southbound. I was still seeing the backs of them northbound at least to exit 95.

Also, on the weirdness at Main & Mercedes in Norman–we're back to green signs as of yesterday, new ones, with the alignment issue corrected.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

bugo

The Gilcrease Turnpike is unpopular? According to whom? It isn't needed? It will provide a much safer and better route from I-44 in midtown to US 64-412 west towards Sand Springs. It will bypass downtown and the nasty, slow, clogged and dangerous IDL. I don't get out to Sand Springs very often, but I'd happily pay the toll to avoid the deathtrap known as the Inner Dispersal Loop.

Nexus 5X


bugo

There are very few houses in the ROW of the future Gilcrease Turnpike. The ones that were there (just south of US 64-412) were removed decades ago. This road will benefit far more than it will inconvenience.

As far as the IDL goes, there isn't a lot of room to expand it

Plutonic Panda

Quote from: bugo on June 30, 2018, 11:41:11 PM
There are very few houses in the ROW of the future Gilcrease Turnpike. The ones that were there (just south of US 64-412) were removed decades ago. This road will benefit far more than it will inconvenience.

As far as the IDL goes, there isn't a lot of room to expand it
Eminent domaine and or elevated structures and tunnels. This country needs to start thinking big again. So tired of the status quo :/

Btw, this isn't targeted at you. I know you're thinking realistically, but it is sad to see things that won't be done bc people don't wanna think they're possible. At any rate, it would at least be nice to see the IDL reconstructed and exits moved to the right with C/D lanes.

Plutonic Panda

I-40 at Exit 64 Interchange at Gary Boulevard and a mile or so of the interstate will be getting some upgrades. I believe this meeting is just an update to select the alternative: https://www.ok.gov/odot/Programs_and_Projects/Public_Meetings_and_Hearings/20190228.html


Plutonic Panda

US-385 through Boise City will be reconstructed as will the roads around Boise Public Square:

QuoteThe Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) is scheduled to reconstruct US-385 around the Boise City Square and extending north 0.7 miles along Cimarron Avenue. This project will consist of full replacement of the current pavement, improve drainage, replacing the existing water and sewer lines, and provide for pedestrian access to the inner square. The
project will also provide for proper turning movements through the square for large vehicles, while providing added protection for parked vehicles and pedestrians. This investment in Boise City reflects ODOT's commitment to improvements of US-385 and the City of Boise City.

https://www.ok.gov/odot/Programs_and_Projects/Public_Meetings_and_Hearings/20190312.html

Plutonic Panda

Oklahoma's first DDI will be in Elk City at I-40 and SH-6. Construction starts in September and OkDOT says it should open in a year from then.

[vimeo][/vimeo]

https://www.ok.gov/odot/What's_New/I-40_and_SH-6_Diverging_Diamond_Interchange.html

DJStephens

Elk City is not exactly a big place.  Why on earth was a decision made to place such an unconventional interchange there?!?

Stephane Dumas

Quote from: DJStephens on March 13, 2019, 05:21:19 PM
Elk City is not exactly a big place.  Why on earth was a decision made to place such an unconventional interchange there?!?

I guess it might be linked to the other project to make the remaining gap of OK-6 a 4-lanes divided highway?

rte66man

Quote from: DJStephens on March 13, 2019, 05:21:19 PM
Elk City is not exactly a big place.  Why on earth was a decision made to place such an unconventional interchange there?!?

The amount of oil field traffic at that interchange is daunting plus that's the only exit between Clinton and Shamrock with a decent number of services. I think it's a great place for a DDI.
When you come to a fork in the road... TAKE IT.

                                                               -Yogi Berra

US71

The Baron Fork Creek Bridge along OK 51 near Eldon is in the process of being replaced and the intersection at US 62 is being realigned.
Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast



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