Oklahoma bridge repairs push state from near last to national top 5

Oklahoma has had a major swing when it comes to the safety of the state’s bridges, going from 49th in the nation 20 years ago to fourth now.

DRIVERS TAKING NOTICE

Debbie Pettit drove to Tulsa from Pryor on Monday and says she saw a lot of construction on the bridges.

"It's going to be great when it's all finished, but you just have to start preparing now,” said Pettit. “When you come to town for things, you're going to be backed up in traffic.”

She says she has seen an improvement on the bridges around Green Country.

"Those are getting better and better, and you can see that's a lot of what the construction is right now is over the bridges,” said Pettit.

NEAR LAST TO NEAR FIRST

Tim Gatz, the Executive Director of ODOT, says there are now 35 bridges in the state in poor condition and they are part of an eight-year construction plan to fix them.

Gatz says 20 years ago, when the state was ranked 49th, nearly 1,200 bridges were in poor condition.

Only one bridge in Tulsa County is rated poor, and it’s the one on 2nd Street and the I-244 off ramp, on the west leg of the loop around downtown.

ODOT says it plans to fix that one in the next few months.

ODOT says this fourth-place ranking is the highest ranking the state has ever received.

"It takes everybody working together to get to that number four spot,” said Gatz during the meeting. “I could not be prouder to stand in front of you today and tell you that. Again, incredible accomplishment. It is going to take continued diligence for us to stay there."

This ranking includes bridges on non-tolled interstates, U.S. highways, and state highways maintained by ODOT.

Gatz says there are about 1,000 bridges in the state that are at risk that ODOT is monitoring.

CITY AND COUNTY BRIDGES

State lawmakers passed legislation this year that would give $75 million to county roads nad bridges across the state.

The state says this is one of the largest single-year investments in county transportation infrastructure in state history.

BRIDGE TIMELINE AND MORE INFORMATION

ODOT provides more information on the historic effort to make bridges in the state safer HERE:

RELATED

From 1,200 to 45: Oklahoma's journey in improving bridge conditions since 2002 I-40 collapse