Jan. 15—Oklahoma Department of Transportation seeks federal help to widen U.S. 69 and replace the Centennial Trail bridge.
The department is seeking a $20 million grant through the federal Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program. This would cover less than half of the estimated $46 million total project cost, according to ODOT data.
Muskogee City Council passed a resolution supporting the ODOT application at a special meeting Monday.
Division 1 ODOT engineer Chris Wallace said work would be done in two parts.
One would involve reconstructing the four-lane divided highway between Haddock Street and Border Avenue.
Work between Border and Okmulgee Avenue involves building three lanes in each direction.
“There will be a couple of sections where there will be a two-way left turn bay in the middle,” Wallace said.
Plans also call for replacing Centennial Trail’s bridge and raising the highway going under it by six inches.
“That way, when the semis go under there it’s not such a climb for them to get out,” Wallace said. “Then we will put in a taller pedestrian bridge over the road.”
He said the current bridge is 15 feet above the road and the new bridge would closer to 17 feet above the raised highway.
“There’s a lot of oversized loads that can’t go underneath that current bridge and they have to detour through the city of Muskogee,” Wallace said. “Once we get that pedestrian bridge in place, those trucks would be able to stay on 69.”
The raised highway and bridge also could improve visibility, he said.
Centennial Bridge replacement, budgeted for $460,000 was to have been part of a $78 million bond issue proposed to voters, then scrapped, in 2024.
Wallace said he doesn’t know about the odds of getting the grant, but he remains hopeful.
He said he will submit the request within the next couple of months. Grant recipients could be announced in October.
“Whether we get the grant or not, we will be moving forward,” he said. “We have acquired all the right of way. Soon, you will start to notice we’re starting to move utilities. Once those utilities are all relocated, that’s when we will begin construction.”
Wallace said he hopes workers could begin construction by the end of 2025 and finish by 2027.