Wreck Causes Delays On Highway 169 Near Pine

By Tara Vreeland, The News On 6

TULSA, OK - A Friday morning accident left one more bridge in need of repair and it will cause traffic headaches and backups.  There are 62,000 cars that travel along the stretch of Highway 169 near Pine every day.  Drivers can expect delays and slow traffic while ODOT fixes the beam under the bridge after a trash truck crashed into it.

"I'll say one thing, Tulsa's been very resilient about finding alternate routes," said ODOT Construction Engineer Paul Green.

Drivers who routinely use northbound Highway 169 may have to find an alternate route. Or they will have endure the traffic crawl as the bridge over Pine is repaired.

"It'll just be tapered down to one lane at this time. The highway will still be open," said ODOT Construction Engineer Paul Green.

Friday morning, the bridge was damaged by a trash-hauling truck. The Tulsa Fire Department says the truck was westbound on Pine when the truck's hydraulic lift, which was up, struck a steel beam.

The impact caused the truck to roll. And, the driver was taken to a Tulsa hospital with minor injuries.

"It's pretty significant damage," said ODOT Construction Engineer Paul Green.  "We're just trying to get details of how bad the damage is and what we need to do to repair the beam."

ODOT crews evaluated the damage to the bridge and said most of the damage was to a beam.

"We section these beams out and we can just take a piece of the beam out if you will and weld it back in and paint it again and it's good as new," said ODOT Construction Engineer Paul Green.

Pine was open on Friday night, but ODOT says the right lane over the bridge on Highway 169 will stay closed thru the weekend and into the workweek.

ODOT also strongly encourages drivers to find alternate routes until the repairs can be made to the bridge.