Tulsa roadmeet report

[bugo]

In attendance: Me, Scott Nazelrod, David Backlin, David Corcoran, Steve Alpert, Cody Goodman, and Gene VanDusseldorp.  We had guests from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Wyoming, Alabama, New Jersey, and Missouri, which is impressive for a Monday meet.

We met at around 11 am.  It was a cold, brisk day.  After congregating a bit, we headed out on I-44.  We drove through the awful ramp from 51st Street to I-44, then followed I-44 to Catoosa.  Along the way, we saw a bad wreck involving a red Ford F150 crew cab and a semi.  Turns out there was a fatality involved.  That means that on the day of both Oklahoma roadmeets a fatality occured on I-44.  We exited off of I-44 onto OK 66 (a left exit) which is also old I-44.  We turned onto Pine and visited the abandoned Will Rogers Turnpike (I-44).  This is a must see for any road enthusiast.  There are some BGSs remaining.  We got some pictures of a typical OTA sign.  It was an exit sign for OK 66 (with a circle) with a right/up arrow and EXIT 1 MILE.  It's surreal walking on an abandoned road that carried so much traffic and is now forgotten.  Check it out if you get the chance.

Next we drove east on OK 66 to check out an old alignment and the twin truss bridges over the Verdigris River.  We pulled a U and followed the original US 66 route into Tulsa.  We had lunch at Wilson's BBQ on 11th Street, which is old US 66.  There was an embossed green 11th Street blade sign hanging on the wall. After this we got onto I-244 and headed west onto US 64/412.  We took the Old Keystone Road exit, which leads to a pristine section of old US 64 paved in the original Bates concrete.  A long segment was inundated by Lake Keystone, so we drove as far as we could and walked to the point where the road enters the lake.  There was an odd drainage structure that ended in the muck under the lake. The pavement was in really bad shape at the point where it enters the lake.  We turned around and went west on this well preserved old alignment.  We took this alignment as far as we could, then headed onto modern US 64 towards Cleveland.  We opted for an old alignment to the west of the current alignment, which was also in excellent shape.  Then we headed through Cleveland, and visited and drove on an abandoned Oklahoma Y at the US 64/OK 99 intersection. 

Next was bridgehunting time.  First bridge was the impressive Blackburn Bridge over the Arkansas River.  The road that leads to the bridge doesn't look like a through road, and I think the guys in the car behind me got a bit nervous for a bit.  I got a video of the bridge, but there wasn't a good place to stop and take pictures so we
headed up the gravel road that leads to OK 20.  We followed OK 20 west to its end at OK 18, then OK 18 south and across the Ralston Bridge, which I also videoed.  We found a good vantage point for pictures, and stopped and got some snaps.  Then it was south on OK 18 and then west on a county road that was once OK 18W.  We crossed the third great Arkansas River crossing on this road.  Again, there was no good place to get pictures so we turnaround and headed south on OK 18. 

Some of the guys wanted to clinch some counties, so at Pawnee we headed west on US 64.  We headed south on OK 108 then east on OK 51.  By this time it was dark, had it not been dark we would have explored some old OK 51 alignments but we stayed on modern OK 51 to the OK 151 trumpet.  We clinched OK 151 then headed east on US 64-412 back into Tulsa.  We headed back to my place.  Scott was very tired, so he headed home soon afterward but the rest of us hung around and some of us had some beers.  Then we said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways.

The Tulsa meet was a success.  I would like to thank everybody for coming. I've posted some pictures, including two group pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/watuzi/

[bugo]

Here are some videos I made of the three great Arkansas River crossings in Pawnee and Osage Counties.  Commentary by Scott5114, Gene, and myself.

Blackburn bridge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCZ2jkhFqiw
Ralston (OK 18) bridge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j3-dfKFggI
Old OK 18W bridge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJjn2WvGCNQ
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0_WIaGD8xg

[Truvelo]

Those pictures of abandoned I-44 are amazing. When was it last used as the sign looks in good shape. I'm surprised no one has taken it as a souvenir. Are there any plans to redevelop the area or will it be left to slowly decay?

[US71]

Those pictures of abandoned I-44 are amazing. When was it last used as the sign looks in good shape. I'm surprised no one has taken it as a souvenir. Are there any plans to redevelop the area or will it be left to slowly decay?

I heard somewhere Oklahoma Highway Patrol supposedly uses it for training. It was also used for a political ad a few years back.

[bugo]

Those pictures of abandoned I-44 are amazing. When was it last used as the sign looks in good shape. I'm surprised no one has taken it as a souvenir. Are there any plans to redevelop the area or will it be left to slowly decay?

It was abandoned circa 2002.

[agentsteel53]

I heard somewhere Oklahoma Highway Patrol supposedly uses it for training. It was also used for a political ad a few years back.

the state of Oklahoma should put the word out about its usefulness as a filming location.  Would be a good way to help the local economy some.

[Scott5114]

It even comes with graffiti so you can pretend it's an urban area–"Fart" and "Smock" are spraypainted on the bridge!

[Chris]

When was it last used as the sign looks in good shape. I'm surprised no one has taken it as a souvenir.

I don't think you can just load such a sign in your pickup truck. It's very big, many people don't realize how big a road sign is unless you're standing next to it. I also heard people who wanted an overhead sign in their bedroom. They have no idea such signs are over 20 feet wide.

[bugo]

When was it last used as the sign looks in good shape. I'm surprised no one has taken it as a souvenir.

I don't think you can just load such a sign in your pickup truck. It's very big, many people don't realize how big a road sign is unless you're standing next to it. I also heard people who wanted an overhead sign in their bedroom. They have no idea such signs are over 20 feet wide.

Yes this sign is huge.  It would take a semi truck to haul it.  The base of the sign is high enough that you can walk under it.

[Scott5114]

Steve had fun halfheartedly throwing rocks at it attempting to knock the 66 shield off so he could take it home. It didn't come off.

[J N Winkler]

I don't think you can just load such a sign in your pickup truck. It's very big, many people don't realize how big a road sign is unless you're standing next to it. I also heard people who wanted an overhead sign in their bedroom. They have no idea such signs are over 20 feet wide.

If I were really into collecting large guide signs (in fact I am not into collecting signs at all), I would keep them in a large barn.  A single 36" shield is just over half my height (I am 5' 11") and a typical freeway guide sign with one shield and three lines of legend is 1' + 3' + 1' + 1 1/3' + 1' + 1 1/3' + 1 + 1 1/3' + 1 = 12' tall, or in other words too tall to fit within a typical room having 8' ceilings.  A single letter of lowercase demountable copy (no ascenders or descenders) will be as large as a dinner plate.

When the first British motorway signs were erected in the late 1950's, they were criticized in the newspapers because they were "as big as houses."  This was literally true, but it was also necessary that they be that big in order to be read and understood at speed.

I have been a sign enthusiast for many years, but:

*  I hate sharing my living space with hardware that is not human-scaled.

*  In order to discharge their function, traffic signs have to have large expanses of uniform, solid, and often very bright colors, which makes them very challenging to the eye indoors.  There is a reason soft pastels and subtle patterns of texture and gloss tend to be the most popular choices for interior decoration.

Thus, rather than collecting physical signs, I collect pattern-accurate dimensioned drawings for the signs.  I also collect them in electronic format whenever I can because a significant collection of sign drawings just won't fit comfortably into living space.  A dedicated collector might easily get over 40,000 pages of sign drawings over the course of a few years.  If each page were printed out onto a single page of letter-size paper, it would take eight boxes of copying paper (at 5000 sheets of paper per box) to print them all out.