OKLAHOMA CITY – Three public safety projects in southwest Oklahoma – in Kiowa, Stephens and Comanche counties – were approved recently by the state Transportation Commission.
• Freese and Nichols, Inc., was awarded a $248,245 contract to provide preliminary engineering and prepare construction plans for modifications to the T-intersection of US-81 and SH-7 (the Lawton/Duncan wye) three miles south of Marlow.
Phase I will consist of “looking at all relevant traffic information and then studying up to four alternates for this location,” said Brenda Perry of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation’s Media and Public Relations Division. “These alternates will include a signalized intersection, a continuous-green T-intersection variation, displaced left-turns, and a multi-lane roundabout.”
Phase II will be construction plans for the recommended alternative, she said.
Average daily traffic counts at that junction in 2019 were: 9,100 on SH-7 one-half mile west of the intersection; 14,500 on US-81 half a mile north of SH-7; and 12,500 on US-81 half a mile south of SH-7.
Freese and Nichols is an engineering, planning and consulting firm based in Oklahoma City.
• Nearly four-tenths of a mile of thin, narrow sidewalks in Roosevelt will be torn out and replaced with thicker and wider walkways.
The new sidewalks will be built on US-183 (Main Street) from the junction of SH-19 extending south for five blocks, Mayor Nolan McCall said. The Transportation Commission awarded a $466,664 contract on the project to Tom Hudson Paving of Guthrie, the lowest of six bidders for the job.
Average daily traffic volume on US-183 just south of Roosevelt was approximately 1,300 vehicles in 2019, while the average daily traffic count on SH-19 at the east edge of town that year was 430 vehicles, ODOT research indicates.
Roosevelt is a Kiowa County community of approximately 250 population.
• A traffic safety project in Geronimo received a “green light” from the Transportation Commission.
Old equipment in a state of disrepair in a school zone along SH-281A (Main Street) will be replaced, Ms. Perry said. The equipment includes school zone advanced warning signs with flashing beacons, rectangular rapid flashing beacons, and pavement marking improvements, ODOT reported.
The new signs were ordered last week and “normally it takes about six to eight weeks before we receive them,” Ms. Perry said. “We hope to have them installed by the end of April.”
The project will cost an estimated $8,000 and will be funded entirely by ODOT, she said.
Average daily traffic volume on US-281A a short distance northwest of Geronimo numbered 870 vehicles in 2019, ODOT records indicate.