ODOT Reopens Westbound Lanes Of Broken Arrow Expressway

By Ashli Sims, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- The Oklahoma Department of Transportation re-opened all the west bound lanes of the Broken Arrow Expressway early Thursday morning. 

On Wednesday afternoon a hole appeared in a bridge over Pittsburg Avenue for the second time this week. 

The hole was in the exact same spot that was patched by ODOT crews on Monday.

Blazing heat, bumper to bumper traffic, and a dose of déjà vu. Some Broken Arrow Expressway commuters have had it.

"I know it," one driver said. "It's unreal."

Rush hour traffic was at a standstill on Monday on the Broken Arrow Expressway. Traffic was whittled down to one lane while crews worked to repair a two foot by two foot hole over Pittsburg Avenue.

8/2/2010 Related Story: Broken Arrow Expressway Reopened After Hole Forms On Highway

And then again on Wednesday, those shafts of light are filtering through another hole, in the exact same place that was patched by crews two days earlier.

The holey bridge has now held this driver up twice this week.

"I think they need to work on our streets a little bit more than they're working on them and I also think people need to learn how to drive in this kind of traffic," one driver said.

"This is a rare occasion rather than an everyday thing," said Randle White, Oklahoma Department Of Transportation.

ODOT said crews worked diligently to repair the road, but these high-temperatures are working against them.

"What happens is concrete gets hot," White said. "And if it cures too fast, becomes too hot, it can become brittle."

And that's what caused the re-occurring crumbling. ODOT said crews will adjust their repair work to accommodate the sweltering heat.

And from the air-conditioned cool of his car, one outdoor worker says there are worse things than being stuck in traffic.

"Not as bad as being stuck underneath a house," he said.

The section of the Broken Arrow expressway that's caused so many problems is scheduled to get a new bridge deck in 2013.