CHICKASHA – Invoices for nearly half a million dollars on two sanitary sewer projects were approved recently by the City Council wearing its alternate hat of the Municipal Authority.
The CMA approved another payment to Matthews Trenching Co. for a sewer main project on US-62 near 16th Street, to replace a buried line that collapsed under the highway, outgoing Mayor Chris Mosley said.
The job required construction of 299 linear feet of 12-inch PVC sanitary sewer main and 20 linear feet of 6-inch PVC sewer line, installation of two manholes and raising one manhole to grade, records reflect.
The latest payment, $32,640, raised the total amount paid on that $344,500 contract to $339,300, leaving a $5,200 balance, ledgers indicate. The original contract price was $317,500 but change orders boosted the cost by $27,000, the invoice shows.
The realignment of US-81 has necessitated relocation of sewer and water lines.
One project entailed installation of approximately 1,110 linear feet of 14-inch-diameter ductile iron sewer main and four manholes, engineer R. Scott Vaughn of Chisholm Trail Consulting related.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation approved the project in 2019, bids were opened in 2023, and a $616,600 contract was awarded to Matthews Trenching, of Oklahoma City. The Chickasha Municipal Authority approved a $436,472 payment on that job April 1.
A related project, a Highway 81 water main relocation, is “under contract” and the work is expected to begin soon, City Manager Keith Johnson told the City Council recently. More than $315,800 in sales tax is dedicated to that job.
The Transportation Department will reimburse the city for at least some of the US-81 expenses, Johnson said.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation is preparing for a major project to realign US-81 on the west side of Chickasha, to improve safety and relieve traffic congestion downtown.
The realignment will feature construction of eight miles of a full access- controlled highway from just north of the SH-19 junction to north of the US-62 junction on the west side of town, said Mills Leslie with ODOT’s Strategic Communications Division.
The multiple projects will take more than three years to complete.
Eventually the project will include construction of four traffic lanes, six new interchanges and multiple bridges, at a “rough” estimated cost of $250 million to $300 million, Leslie said. Initially a two-lane highway will be constructed, “then hopefully we’ll add two more lanes later, depending on funding availability.”
Construction of the first two lanes, at an estimated price tag of $82 million, is expected to go out for bids in September and will take approximately 900 days – two and a half years – to complete, records indicate.
The next phase will consist of bridges constructed at the county and city street level “and is tentatively scheduled to go out for bids in September 2025 for $21 million,” Leslie said.
The impact to traffic should be minimal, “as all of this will be constructed to the west of town,” she said.
Major safety and congestion- relief benefits of the realignment “will include moving freight traffic, including heavy commercial truck and oilfield traffic, out of downtown Chickasha onto the new alignment,” Leslie said.