GLENPOOL, Okla. — Work at the intersection of Highway 75 and 141st Street will soon be complete, but the Oklahoma Department of Transportation still has a few tasks to finish.
FOX23 spoke with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) to get the latest on the project. ODOT stated that the project is necessary; however, residents claim that it’s creating travel issues that are affecting their daily routines.
“At first, I felt…it was a hot mess and it was not planned out when they first did it the way they did, and now it still doesn’t feel like it’s planned out,” said Glenpool resident Kegan Sarant. “I feel like we’re going to have problems in a year, if not faster than a year.”
T.J. Gerlach with ODOT said this project aims to alleviate traffic congestion and accidents that used to occur frequently.
“Making this new overpass, it gets traffic. Not having to have a sudden stop, especially with a mile south and two miles to the north, we’ve got interchanges there,” said Gerlach. “So people just aren’t expecting a stoplight in the middle of the highway like that.”
The bridge opened this week, but it will be narrowed down to one lane in each direction for a while.
“The stoppage of people not recognizing where construction is or the over-speeding, cutting you off — they didn’t realize it or trying to get to the light even though you’re both going to stop there at the same time, maybe 30 seconds ahead,” said Sarant.
He also said this traffic makes his travel time to Cleveland to see his family even longer, from 45 minutes to an hour, due to the construction.
“It depends on when you go. If I go [during] traffic hour, that’s probably going to add so much…but I try to avoid those and go during a certain time,” Sarant said.
With construction ongoing, Gerlach urged drivers to be aware of their surroundings in the area.
“The number one thing is to make sure you put away those distractions. Being distracted on the roadway is not a good idea, so we want to make sure people are putting away those distractions [and] make sure they’re paying attention to changes in speed limit whether it’s coming in town, or if it’s a work zone and we have those ‘reduce speed limits’ in the work zone,” said Gerlach.
Gerlach said the project should be complete by this October. You can see real-time closures on ODOT’s app, Drive Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation still has a few tasks.
