CHICKASHA – Construction on the $78.73 million US-81 realignment project on the southwest side of town began seven months ago and is progressing well.
The new route will start at Quail Road (County Road 1400) off US-81 at the south edge of town, and extend northwest over the H.E. Bailey Turnpike approximately seven miles to the junction of US-62 / US-81.
The initial work will entail grading, drainage, one or more bridges and approaching roadway, said Kalie Eldridge, public information officer with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s Government and Community Affairs Division.
An estimated five million cubic yards of dirt will be excavated during the multiyear project, Reese Knight of Anadarko, ODOT resident engineer for Grady and Caddo counties and “the upper half” of Comanche County, told Southwest Ledger last Friday.
Construction began Feb. 9, and approximately 15% of the dirtwork has already been completed, Project Engineer Cody Sheets estimated.
Robinson Construction was the lowest of four bidders for the job and was awarded the contract in December 2025. The dirtwork and construction of three bridges during phase 1 will take an estimated 900 days to complete, in the third quarter of 2028, ODOT reported.
The next phase will entail construction of bridges at the county and city street level. Phase 2 will feature construction of six bridges from Interstate 44 (H.E. Bailey Turnpike) north for 3.7 miles to Idaho Avenue in Chickasha, ODOT records show.
Phase 3 will include construction of a Quail Road interchange and three more bridges, according to the Transportation Department. Two other bridges will be built later, ODOT records reflect.
Ultimately the highway realignment work will affect Grand Avenue, and Idaho Avenue will be closed for up to 200 days, Knight said.
Initial plans call for constructing a two-lane highway, then adding two more lanes later if warranted by traffic volume and funding is available, ODOT officials told Southwest Ledger.
The ultimate goal for realignment of US-81 is construction of a full-access controlled highway of four lanes, six new interchanges, and multiple bridges at the county and city street levels.
“We have another $181 million programmed for construction of other phases” of the project, Eldridge told the Ledger in May 2025.
According to Knight, the first two lanes will be paved with concrete asphalt, probably to a depth of 10 inches. The surfacing will be a “balanced mix” starting with a lower, coarser layer of asphalt and progressing to higher layers, he indicated.
Concrete asphalt is less expensive than concrete paving but is durable, he said. “We want to get both rut resistance and crack resistance.” In addition, mill-and-overlay repairs are cheaper than a dowelbar retrofit on a concrete highway, such as the ones performed on the Bailey toll road during the past six years.
“A lot of this comes down to cost-benefit analysis,” said Knight.
Safety and congestionrelief benefits of the realignment will include “moving freight traffic, including heavy commercial truck and oilfield traffic, out of downtown Chickasha – specifically Choctaw Avenue (US-62) and Fourth Street (US-81) – onto the new alignment,” ODOT Public Information Manager Mills Leslie said.