Oklahoma Monitoring Stretch Of Highway 51 Near Mannford Again

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation is keeping a close eye on a stretch of Highway 51 that crews repaired just a year ago.

The location is the westbound lane and shoulder of Highway 51 about five miles west of Highway 97 in Sand Springs. Last year, the cracks in the pavement were sealed, but now orange cones are back up blocking the shoulder.

ODOT says it's monitoring to find out if there's any natural earth movement causing the pavement to crack again.

It's been about a year since crews completed a $1.4 million project, fixing the soil underneath as well as repaving the road.

5/26/2017 Related Story: Drivers Concerned As Part Of Highway 51 Continues To Crumble

The issue they were checking on now appears to be similar to what was happening back in 2015.  Officials say the shoulder and right lane of the highway had started crack and slide, before some of it even crumbled.

ODOT says all the rain back in 2015 - along with natural earth movement - caused the damage then, and it just got worse over time.

The department says it is too early at this point to to say what's going on now.

ODOT plans to monitor the area to find out if there is anymore natural earth movement.  They will collect data for several months and then make a decision on what to do next.