Bridge Construction Closes 2 Downtown Tulsa IDL Ramps

NewsOn6.com

TULSA, Oklahoma -- There's a new orange barrel alert out for drivers headed west on the Broken Arrow Expressway into downtown Tulsa.

Construction on the first phase of a double-decker bridge over the Arkansas River is underway.

Friday night, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation closed two ramps, the westbound ramp to southbound I-244 over the bridge and the northbound ramp to Sand Springs on the IDL.

See map [right].

Both ramps will remain closed for the next two years and that means you will have to exit at 11th and Houston, unless you use the northbound leg of the IDL to go south on I-244 or to Sand Springs.

5/13/2011 Related Story: First Phase Of Tulsa's Double Decker Bridge Project To Begin This Weekend

The new I-244 bridge over the Arkansas River is what engineers describe as "multi-modal" - carrying all kinds of traffic, with a double decker design.

Cars will go on top and eventually passenger rail will go underneath.

Within the next month, all westbound traffic on I-244 will cross over before the bridge and the eastbound bridge will be taking both east and westbound traffic, so the westbound bridge can be demolished.

Read an Oklahoma Department of Transportation project overview.