AARoads Forum

Regional Boards => Central States => Topic started by: bugo on August 25, 2017, 11:43:56 AM

Title: How was Skelly Drive (I-44) in Tulsa signed before it was completed?
Post by: bugo on August 25, 2017, 11:43:56 AM
Skelly Drive is the original "bypass" of Tulsa. It was built at the edge of the city at the time, but the metro grew to the south and east and now it runs right through the middle of town. It is currently signed as I-44 and OK 66 but at various times and at various places it was once signed as US 66, US 75, US 169 and OK 33 along with I-44. Much of the highway between the US 75 interchange and the eastern I-244 split has been reconstructed but some of the original highway still exists.

The Tulsa inset on the 1954 Oklahoma official highway map shows Skelly Drive complete from the eastern end of the Turner Turnpike to just east of the 51st Street bridge where it transitioned into 51st Street. The 1957 map shows it extending to just east of Yale Avenue (it likely ended at the Yale interchange.) The 1958 map shows it ending between 31st/Memorial and 21st/Mingo (it likely ended at 31st.) The 1959 map shows it complete and signed as I-44. In 1960, US 66 was added to Skelly Drive and the old alignment was renamed Business US 66.

How was Skelly Drive signed between 1953-1954 and 1958-1959 when it was incomplete? Did it have a number? Was the number temporary?
Title: Re: How was Skelly Drive (I-44) in Tulsa signed before it was completed?
Post by: NE2 on August 25, 2017, 03:34:41 PM
Probably not Fart Smock.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/archives/st-street-bypass-was-prelude-to-expressways/article_d46eef8b-9f8f-5c46-899d-b45d8057bd03.html has some history but not what it was signed as.