Hochatown, the McCurtain County town in southeastern Oklahoma that some contend was really built anew by tourists from north Texas, has the attention of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. And that means highway construction for the next couple of years.
Hochatown – a city of about 7,100 acres that was incorporated in 2023 – has critical traffic needs.
The community has experienced rapid growth in rentals of modern-day cabins, many owned by Texans as well as Oklahoma vacationers. In addition, the $238 million Choctaw Landing – the Choctaw tribe’s new 100-bed luxury resort with a casino boast ing of 600 slot machines and eight table games, a pool with 10 cabanas, and an outdoor amphitheater that seats 125 – opened in Hochatown in April.
ODOT and the state Transportation Commission responded by awarding a $29,706,000 contract to upgrade US-259 from twotenths of a mile so uth of the SH-259A south junction northerly for 2.4 miles toward Hochatown. The contract was awarded Nov. 14 to C Gawf Construction Co. of Henryetta.
ODOT Executive Director Tim Gatz said the pr oject will include construction of a center lane and pedestrian improvements. Work is expected to begin in e arly spring 2025 and is to be completed by Oct. 1, 2026.
“It’s the f irst phase of the Hochatown projects that are gonna help traffic in a very busy tourist and commercial area,” Gatz told the commission.
Research conducted last year on US-259 a short distance south of Old Hochatown Highway counted an average daily vehicle traffic volume of 9,200 vehicles – more than double the 4,100 vehicles per day traffic count five years earlier.
“The thing I want to recognize about what’s happening in McCurtain County and Hochatown in particular is, it’s special. It is the beginning. R eally, it’s been ongoing, but what we’re seeing down there now is the materialization of a recreational area and a tourist area that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.”
Gatz said the ability to manage traffic in the environment around Hochatown is a challenge because the current traffic system has a lot of deficiencies. “It’s challenging to us, but this is the begin ning of making it bet ter,” he said.
“Not only are we going to try to facilitate traffic flow better, we’re going to accommodate the utility expansions that are needed in that area. We’re going to accommodate pedestrian circulation, which is hugely
deficient down there.” In fact, he said, there is no pedestrian traffic capability in Hochatown.
“It’s not really walkable, but in the future it will have to be as we continue to see this kind of development. We’ve got a chance to be a difference maker down there and we’re going to improve the conditions, but we are also going to be exceptionally mindful of the area that we’re working in.”
Gatz said ODOT is aware that Hochatown is a tourism and recreation area, and the department will have to be “careful to interact at a high level of detail with the businesses that are adjacent to Highway 259.”
The contract approved in November is the f irst phase of highway improvements for Hochatown. Phase Two, Gatz said, will focus on the north through Hochatown proper in about 2026. And that will be followed by a final phase that extends the improved sections of US-259 south approximately seven miles to Broken Bow.