Oklahoma

[rte66man]

The current version of Rogers Lane was built in the 1988-92 time frame. A two-lane street and dirt road divided Fort Sill and Lawton prior to that time.

As for the alleged "inadequate" condition of Rogers Lane/US 62: Unless the US Army plans to greatly expand artillery training and artillery host units on post, there's not much justification for additional exits or freewayizing the road. With Ft. Sill having a direct I-44 exit, the justification for additional exits on Rogers Ln. becomes even less.

"Alleged"? Fort Sill isn't the traffic generator for Rogers Lane. What you aren't seeing is the amount of traffic coming from OKC headed to Altus. There is a very large AFB there. Add in the locals trying to get over to the industrial area by Goodyear and rightfully having an aversion to using "Crash" Road and Rogers Lane generates more than enough traffic to at the very least justify putting in grade separations at the major intersections.

[Bobby5280]

Rogers Lane does carry a good amount of traffic entering and leaving Fort Sill. It tends to come and go in surges. One of the biggest rushes of traffic is very early in the morning. A large number of active duty and retired military personnel and families live in Lawton and Cache. They frequently visit Fort Sill to shop for groceries at the commissary or access other services. Bentley Gate on Sheridan Road might be the most heavily traveled entrance on Fort Sill. Many motorists will take Rogers Lane to the Sheridan Road exit to get there.

There is a decent amount of military related traffic moving between Fort Sill and Altus AFB. And a good bit of vehicle traffic from those two military installations goes up to Tinker AFB in OKC.

I'm skeptical the modest upgrades proposed along Rogers Lane will be of much help. I'm hoping that could be an interim solution and that ODOT will do more substantial things at key locations. The 38th Street intersection with Rogers Lane really needs to be a grade-separated freeway exit. That intersection is going to be dangerous once the truck traffic increases after that new Goodyear Blvd exit on US-62 is completed. The intersection with 67th Street isn't much better. That privacy wall built along one corner of the intersection creates quite a blind spot.

[roadman65]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5ppNhkqDEQEYY4eT7
Despite the Downstream Casino being in Oklahoma and the access road passing through Kansas to connect the casino resort with Missouri, still you can see visible evidence on the pavement of state jurisdiction change between OK and KS.  Considering the casino management ( the Tribe that is) maintains all of Née Road in both states as well as Downstream Blvd in Missouri, one type of asphalt would be maintained in all three states.

Look at the link and you can make out the state line at the all way stop intersection.

[SoonerCowboy]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5ppNhkqDEQEYY4eT7
Despite the Downstream Casino being in Oklahoma and the access road passing through Kansas to connect the casino resort with Missouri, still you can see visible evidence on the pavement of state jurisdiction change between OK and KS.  Considering the casino management ( the Tribe that is) maintains all of Née Road in both states as well as Downstream Blvd in Missouri, one type of asphalt would be maintained in all three states.

Look at the link and you can make out the state line at the all way stop intersection.

They have a tri-state marker just off Nee road that is pretty neat.

[Bobby5280]

There are actually two markers there. One is the old stone marker. Some people joke it looks like a big stone dildo. There is a newer marker on the ground a few yards away located exactly at the spot where the three state corners meet.

[Scott5114]

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5ppNhkqDEQEYY4eT7
Despite the Downstream Casino being in Oklahoma and the access road passing through Kansas to connect the casino resort with Missouri, still you can see visible evidence on the pavement of state jurisdiction change between OK and KS.  Considering the casino management ( the Tribe that is) maintains all of Née Road in both states as well as Downstream Blvd in Missouri, one type of asphalt would be maintained in all three states.

Look at the link and you can make out the state line at the all way stop intersection.

I think you're seeing where they just happened to stop a repaving project, which is at the state line because it's coincidentally a convenient place to leave off.

Either that or it was repaved using a grant that only allows the money to be used inside the Quapaw tribe's service area (i.e. not outside of Oklahoma). I'm not sure whether those sorts of grants can be used for maintenance of for-profit properties like casinos, however.

[I-35]

Good news for Southern Oklahoma - ODOT will move forward with planning for a new 4-lane bridge across Lake Texoma to the south of the existing Roosevelt Bridge, which was built in 1942 and will remain.  ODOT is looking to offload the old bridge onto a nonprofit or other entity that would then preserve it and perhaps open it up for fishing or other activities.
 
ODOT selects new 4-lane alignment for US-70 Roosevelt Bridge replacement

[Bobby5280]

I said this about Rogers Lane recently:

The intersection with 67th Street isn't much better. That privacy wall built along one corner of the intersection creates quite a blind spot.

On Monday a fatal t-bone collision happened at that intersection:
https://www.kswo.com/2024/04/16/update-lpd-releases-information-over-mondays-deadly-crash/?tbref=hp

Apparently the motorist who died was attempting to turn left from Northbound 67th Street onto Westbound Rogers Lane. His vehicle was broadsided by a vehicle traveling Eastbound. They had Rogers Lane closed off a mile in each direction from the site of the crash for several hours.

As I said, the SW corner of the intersection is closely bordered by a solid privacy wall. The wall borders a neighborhood with huge, high priced homes. As if the blind spot wasn't bad enough, a cluster of trees on the other side of the privacy wall makes the blind spot worse.

LPD hasn't said who was at fault. It's likely someone tried running a red light. I hate the timing of the traffic signals on Rogers Lane. You'll catch the red lights far more often that not. It wouldn't surprise me if the guy trying to turn left onto WB Rogers Lane got hit by someone who pressed the accelerator when he saw his green light turn yellow.

I guarantee we're going to see more grisly accidents happen on Rogers Lane once all that trucking traffic from Goodyear and other parts of the West side industrial park start using it. When Goodyear Blvd is extended to a new freeway exit on US-62 the traffic on Rogers Lane will become very different.

[Plutonic Panda]

Such a shame. Oklahoma just acts like the SW part of the state doesn't exist.

[Scott5114]

More like Oklahoma acts like anything that isn't in the median of Lincoln Boulevard doesn't exist. I'm not exactly sure what constituency the state government thinks it's serving, but it's not Oklahomans.

[rte66man]

Such a shame. Oklahoma just acts like the SW part of the state doesn't exist.

Oh wow. It's hard to know where to start. Just let me pick myself up off the floor after passing out from laughter.

SW OK is the KING of 100% pork barrel highway spending. US183 was twinned south from Snyder to Frederick because a former Speaker of the House lived in Frederick. He and others are also the reason for 183 to be twinned from Snyder north to Clinton. Both were a complete waste of money. Same goes for twinning OK6 north from Altus to Elk City. Traffic counts didn't warrant it but legislators from that area convinced others that the Air Force would close Altus AFB if the road wasn't twinned. They also used the old "economic development" saw. Can't see it's made much of a difference in Altus.

Just because Lawton "seems" to be getting the short end of the stick from ODOT doesn't mean the rest of the SW quadrant is ignored.

[Plutonic Panda]

We must be living in 2 different universes. Then because from what i've seen, the issue hardly extends to lawton Only. The 4 lane highway bullshit that is built is a statewide thing Oklahoma does. If a lot of money is being spent there it doesn't show.

[Rothman]

We must be living in 2 different universes.

Given the states you two hail from, yes.

[Bobby5280]

Just because Lawton "seems" to be getting the short end of the stick from ODOT doesn't mean the rest of the SW quadrant is ignored.

Lawton has been getting the short end of the stick for a LOT of things, including highway funding. There is no "seems" about it. And, yeah, Rogers Lane absolutely is going to get a lot more dangerous to drive on once all those trucks from Goodyear and the other industrial plants have direct access to it.

I'll agree about Loyd Benson unfairly pulling strings to get US-183 four-laned from Frederick to Snyder over 20 years ago. But quite a bit of US-183 from Snyder to Clinton is still 2-laned. ODOT has been slowly expanding segments of it. A section South of New Cordell is pretty new. Back in the 1990's some state lawmakers and other rich people with connections were trying to get new turnpikes built from Snyder to Clinton and from Duncan to Davis. Those efforts failed. OK-7 is four-laned between Lawton and Duncan (and rightfully so), but OK-7 is still a 2-lane road from Duncan to Davis.

Overall, that hardly makes Southwest Oklahoma the "king of pork barrel spending" on highway funding.

Oklahoma has all kinds of other sections of 4-lane divided rural highways elsewhere around the state. Some of the rural 4-lane projects that have been built were built due to fatal collisions happening in certain locations. I know for a fact the 4-lane expansion of OK-49 in Medicine Park (from I-44 to the OK-58 intersection) was done in response to a rising number head-on collisions there.