Oklahoma's multi-decade battle to get a US route through Ada

[rte66man]

I noticed a lot of important busy roads have or had rail roads next to them. Some times very close until improved alignments were built.

In the case of Ada, OK -- it's on the BNSF main line (former SLSF/"Frisco") between St. Louis and DFW -- but that line is something of an odd duck, not paralleling any particular major route from Henryetta down to the Red River (it crosses into TX adjacent to US 69/75) but striking out on its own.   Lore has it that the surveyors decided to stay west of the fall line to ensure lower gradients and thus reduced operating costs.  In any case, it's been in operation for about 115 years, although the UP (former M-K-T) line paralleling US 69 a bit to the east, which was laid out on much more of a straight line regardless of terrain today handles considerably more traffic in the Kansas City-Texas set of corridors.

I was looking at the same thing.

Ada has a healthy, multi-threaded economic base. Oil, ranching, agro, and industrial.  But all the railroads have left for more economic ROW's as you said.  I even checked the rail banked Stuart to Savannah line to see how close it gets to Ada.

Even Flex-N-Gate doesn't use their siding anymore for their Plastics works. It appears BNSF has removed all the switches off the line, which means *everything* is by truck. This means Ada's future lies in better road connectivity. It's no wonder they squawk about road funding in their area.

BNSF is mainly using their line through Ada as a relief route to the DFW area for their main through OKC.  I did verify that Lafarge Holcim still rails out a large quantity of cement and fly ash from their Ada plant.

[sparker]

I noticed a lot of important busy roads have or had rail roads next to them. Some times very close until improved alignments were built.

In the case of Ada, OK -- it's on the BNSF main line (former SLSF/"Frisco") between St. Louis and DFW -- but that line is something of an odd duck, not paralleling any particular major route from Henryetta down to the Red River (it crosses into TX adjacent to US 69/75) but striking out on its own.   Lore has it that the surveyors decided to stay west of the fall line to ensure lower gradients and thus reduced operating costs.  In any case, it's been in operation for about 115 years, although the UP (former M-K-T) line paralleling US 69 a bit to the east, which was laid out on much more of a straight line regardless of terrain today handles considerably more traffic in the Kansas City-Texas set of corridors.

I was looking at the same thing.

Ada has a healthy, multi-threaded economic base. Oil, ranching, agro, and industrial.  But all the railroads have left for more economic ROW's as you said.  I even checked the rail banked Stuart to Savannah line to see how close it gets to Ada.

Even Flex-N-Gate doesn't use their siding anymore for their Plastics works. It appears BNSF has removed all the switches off the line, which means *everything* is by truck. This means Ada's future lies in better road connectivity. It's no wonder they squawk about road funding in their area.

BNSF is mainly using their line through Ada as a relief route to the DFW area for their main through OKC.  I did verify that Lafarge Holcim still rails out a large quantity of cement and fly ash from their Ada plant.

BNSF still uses the Tulsa-DFW line through Ada as their main conduit from St. Louis to eastern TX; they spun off the old Frisco line from Sapulpa to OKC to a regional server a couple of decades ago.  But most of the traffic on that line is "manifest" -- i.e. uncontainerized ("loose") freight as well as bulk traffic; most of the main traffic (containers, unit coal trains for the remaining coal-powered generating plants in TX) does come south from KC or the Wichita area on the former Santa Fe N-S main through OKC and Ardmore.  The Tulsa-St. Louis section of the line sees quite a bit of container traffic diverted from the main BNSF "transcon" main line at Avard, in the NW corner of OK; all the old SLSF/"Frisco" lines converged in Sapulpa, where they funneled traffic northeast paralleling old US 66 and I-44 today. 

[motorola870]

U.S. 377 deserves much more attention. It should be extended to Nebraska. But it took them many decades to get U.S. 377 extended to Interstate 44. Now they need to finish 4 laneing it. It is alarming that U.S. 377 been this long until recently was only 2 laned the entire length in Denton County. Oklahoma City is another metropolitan area that U.S. 377 is not that far away from.

There is a lot of traffic between Oklahoma City and Dallas Fort Worth. They might as well continue to upgrade it to 4 lanes to connect these two areas and the smaller cities in between them.

If they do that, it could be a relief route for Interstate 35. ... especially during times of road construction.

We are talking about two states that drag their feet at common sense upgrades. It took 50 years just to get U.S. 287 4 laned from Arlington Texas to Ennis Texas. They have been working on that for ages. They still are in the process of slowly getting that to interstate grade. U.S. 377 only has gotten expanded from Haltom City to Denton and northwards due to the explosion of growth on the north side of the metro. They have even gone and widened U.S. 380 from Denton to U.S. 69 in Greenville for the most part I believe. The Cresson Texas bypass is in planning now. Not sure if they are going to keep 377 Business on the books but I assume Cresson will ask to keep it so they have traffic into town once the bypass is opened. TXDOT has been on a tear giving back business routes to the cities for the last few years. Or the dumbfounded widening of OK33 east of Guthrie to Coyle at the Cimarron River. Goes from 4 to 2 lanes in front of Langston University right before the river and cutoff to Coyle and they had right of way to twin the bridge. If this was Texas that would have been widened at least to Perkins. Especially with OSU traffic going through that corridor.

[rte66man]

....Or the dumbfounded widening of OK33 east of Guthrie to Coyle at the Cimarron River. Goes from 4 to 2 lanes in front of Langston University right before the river and cutoff to Coyle and they had right of way to twin the bridge. If this was Texas that would have been widened at least to Perkins. Especially with OSU traffic going through that corridor.

One word....money. OK33 narrows to 2 lanes well east of the entrance to Langston. A second bridge will cost $6 to $8 million plus the cost of a new carriageway. It's coming but VERY slowly

[Scott5114]

Why is OSU traffic on 33 anyway? It's only 2 miles shorter than 51, which is a much safer route.

[edwaleni]

I noticed a lot of important busy roads have or had rail roads next to them. Some times very close until improved alignments were built.

In the case of Ada, OK -- it's on the BNSF main line (former SLSF/"Frisco") between St. Louis and DFW -- but that line is something of an odd duck, not paralleling any particular major route from Henryetta down to the Red River (it crosses into TX adjacent to US 69/75) but striking out on its own.   Lore has it that the surveyors decided to stay west of the fall line to ensure lower gradients and thus reduced operating costs.  In any case, it's been in operation for about 115 years, although the UP (former M-K-T) line paralleling US 69 a bit to the east, which was laid out on much more of a straight line regardless of terrain today handles considerably more traffic in the Kansas City-Texas set of corridors.

I was looking at the same thing.

Ada has a healthy, multi-threaded economic base. Oil, ranching, agro, and industrial.  But all the railroads have left for more economic ROW's as you said.  I even checked the rail banked Stuart to Savannah line to see how close it gets to Ada.

Even Flex-N-Gate doesn't use their siding anymore for their Plastics works. It appears BNSF has removed all the switches off the line, which means *everything* is by truck. This means Ada's future lies in better road connectivity. It's no wonder they squawk about road funding in their area.

BNSF is mainly using their line through Ada as a relief route to the DFW area for their main through OKC.  I did verify that Lafarge Holcim still rails out a large quantity of cement and fly ash from their Ada plant.

I checked and BNSF is also still serving the Dart Container plant on what used to be the Tanmar siding. It used to serve the Tanmar quarry north of town. The tracks were pulled back to Richardson and Dart is the only customer. US-377 was built on top of the old ROW when it went 4 lane.

BNSF also uses Ada as a MOW office and stores rail and ties there.  Because of this, they keep 4 engines on the siding, 2 for the LaFarge job and 2 for the MOW consists.

There is also a siding that goes south and ends at Main Street.  It appears BNSF uses this former yard as a dumping ground for old ties and bad rail to be picked up for scrap. There is also an area to store switch control huts.  This used to be part of the Tupelo cutoff some years ago. It has no online customers.