The record rainfall recorded in Oklahoma in the month of April is still evident at the Red River where damage is obvious on the construction of a new Interstate 35 bridge. Floodwaters were close to the underside of the bridge.
The new bridge is a joint-project by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Texas Department of Transportion. Both departments are responsible for construction of new approaches of the Interstate to the Red River which is the state line. The approaches on both sides are well underway with a mountain of dirt moved to create the new interstate to one side of the current bridge.
But the floodwaters obviously caused damage to equipment and construction that had been underway in the riverbed. Motorists crossing the bridge could observe the top of equipment which apparently had not been relocated prior to the rising floodwaters.
The $480 million new project was launched last fall and included not only a new bridge but a widening of Interstate 35 in Oklahoma and Texas. The cost on the Oklahoma side was estimated at $37 million.
Tim Gatz, executive director of ODOT, informed Transportation Commissioners in a September 2024 meeting that up to 150,000 vehicles traveled I-35 every day but the traffic is expected to be up to 1.4 million vehicles a day in the next 20 years.
“It is the number one fastest growing for population and job growth in the United States, so it’s got our attention, it has to have our attention,” said Gatz.
Oklahoma partnered with the TxDOT on the project.
“We’ve done some widening down there at the Red River already, in support of the construction traffic control we’re going to have to do during the bridge project,” said Gatz at the meeting. He also explained that to widen all I-35 to six lanes in Oklahoma would cost nearly $2.5 billion so ODOT was launching the effort by widening the 10-mile stretch from the Red River into Oklahoma.
The Oklahoma Transportation Commissioners will meet Monday and Gatz might have an update on the Red River project.
