OKLAHOMA CITY – Nearly 24 miles of the H.E. Bailey contract are being rehabilitated under a $13.76 million contract awarded by the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority.
The dowel bar retrofit project starts at mile post 78 south of Chickasha (in the vicinity of the SH-19 junction that leads to Lindsay) and extends north to mile post 101.6 (about a mile north of the SH-9 junction leading to Norman).
The work started in the northbound lanes but will include the southbound lanes, too, said Jack Damrill, spokesman for the OTA. The job “should be completed late this year,” he said.
Average daily traffic volume on that section of the toll road ranges from about 10,200 vehicles near the SH-9 interchange to approximately 11,400 at Chickasha, depending on the particular highway interchange, OTA records indicate.
A dowel bar retrofit is a concrete pavement rehabilitation tool that restores load transfer across joints and cracks by installing metal dowel bars linking the adjoining slabs. “By linking slabs, the traffic load is shared, preventing differential vertical movement of the slabs at the joints and cracks,” which in turn eliminates “the formation of faults or step-offs,” explained Interstate Improvement, the contractor.
“It is these faults that cause the rough ride and wheel slap that is sensed when traveling on a concrete roadway that has lost its ability to transfer load from one panel to the next,” the Minnesota company said.
The H.E. Bailey was opened to motorists 56 years ago, in 1964.
The main section of the toll road is 86.4 miles long, extending from southwest Oklahoma City to just north of the Texas state line; an 8.2 mile spur connects the main line to SH-9.