Bird Creek Bridges On Highway 169 To Be Replaced

The Oklahoma Transportation Commission approved a $45,500,000 contract Monday to replace the infamous Bird Creek bridges on Highway 169 just south of Owasso.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation said the winning bid is from Becco Contractors. According to the contract, the replacement will take 580 days. ODOT hasn't said when the work will begin or what the replacement bridges will look like.

The two truss bridges were built in 1960 according to NewsOn6.com's Bridge Tracker and are rated as structurally deficient.

The plan approved Monday also calls for replacing the Highway 169 bridges just to north of the Bird Creek bridges, as well as the bridges over 56th Street North.

ODOT calls the bridges just north of the Bird Creek truss bridges the Bird Creek overflow bridges. They were built in 1960. The southbound bridge is listed as structurally deficient while the northbound bridge is not.

The 56th Street North bridges were constructed in 1961 and are both listed as functionally obsolete. ODOT recently widened Highway 169 to six lanes from Pine Street to just south of 56th Street North and the narrow, 2-lane northbound bridge creates a bottleneck during every afternoon rush hour.

The decks on both bridges at 56th Street North are in bad shape and frequently require emergency repairs.