The drive down Interstate 35 from Oklahoma City to the Red River will take some additional time as both Texas and Oklahoma are set to begin various construction phases to widen the highway. In an article published by The Oklahoman on Thursday, writer Steve Lackmeyer indicated the construction zone is “part of a joint effort to widen I-35 to at least six lanes between Oklahoma City and the U.S.-Mexico border.”
Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s chief engineer, Brian Taylor, said Oklahoma has nearly $500 million in the agency’s eight-year plan for widening and improving its stretch of I-35. Texas is figuring out how to bridge the spending gap associated with the widening efforts. Taylor says that it will take 50 years to overcome existing traffic issues given Oklahoma’s current rate of highway funding.
Traffic jams and a daily average of six accidents are reported daily on the highway that spans the Oklahoma River to the Red River.
Lackmeyer reported the “estimated $325 million Red River bridge project will include the stretch of highway between the river and U.S. 82 in Gainesville and a one-mile segment north of the Oklahoma-Texas border. The project also will include extension of a service road currently in use on the Texas side of the border. The extension would connect with U.S. 77 on the Oklahoma side of the border using the current southbound I-35 bridge once the new bridges are built.”