Drivers Excited For Re-Opening Of Keystone Dam Bridge

The wait is almost over as the Keystone Dam Bridge will open Friday, after being closed for reconstruction for more than a year.

The 50-year-old bridge had outlived its design life and had become a bumpy ride for drivers.

The Army Corps of Engineers promised the $15.6 million project would take 13 months to complete and it made good on that promise.

For those who make the drive every day, the opening can't come soon enough. We got to take the drive Thursday, and it's much different from one year ago.

11/13/2014 Related Story: Keystone Dam Highway To Re-Open Following Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

The road closed signs won't be blocking the Keystone Dam Bridge much longer.

“If it's opened, we'll be going across it,” laughed Keystone teacher and bus driver, Jeff Boomer.

No one is more excited than Boomer. His bus route, normally the shortest, has been the longest ever since the bridge shut down last October, adding about two hours of drive time each day.

“The drive, round trip, is right at 100 miles,” he said.

It's hard on him, but even tougher on the 50 students riding the bus.

“In the evenings it's trying sometimes because the kids are rowdy, they're ready to get home and that's a long time to ask them to sit on a bus,” Boomer said.

Friday they won't have to sit nearly as long.

Over on the bridge, the actual road is pretty much ready for drivers, but construction crews are doing a few last minute projects, making sure the bridge is pristine for its grand re-opening Friday.

“It is so smooth; it is like icing on a cake from what was here. The bridge was worn out, it was just beat up - pot holes, chunks falling off it,” said Tulsa's Army Corps of Engineers Chief of Operations, Earl Groves. “This thing was sawed in sections, like you would cut a loaf a bread and then hauled off.”

The construction project is unique because each one of the bridge deck sections was brought in pre-cast, and that was all to save the integrity of the dam, which is underneath.

The dam was built 50 years ago and the bridge deck had never been reconstructed until now.

Groves said the new bridge was built stronger, and will safely carry school buses and any other traffic for another half-century and longer.

A ceremony to celebrate the dam's 50th anniversary starts at 10:00 Friday morning and is open to the public.

The bridge is scheduled to open after the ceremony at 3 p.m.