Creek Turnpike Extensions Making Progress

It wonâ€™t be ready for Labor Day travel, but the western-most portion of the Creek Turnpike extension will be open soon.<br><br>It's one of three sections now under construction.<br> <br>Construction

Saturday, September 2nd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

It wonâ€™t be ready for Labor Day travel, but the western-most portion of the Creek Turnpike extension will be open soon.

It's one of three sections now under construction.

Construction crews will soon make way for traffic on a section of the Creek Turnpike extension.

It will connect Sapulpa and the Turner Turnpike with South Tulsa.

The road is 5 miles long with eight bridges, and it's scheduled to open in January.

On the east end of the existing turnpike a major intersection is under construction. It will connect Highway 169, the Creek, and the Broken Arrow South loop.

Melvin Koleber manages the entire project.

â€œThe Broken Arrow South Loop is coming along fairly well, most of the grading and drainage work is done,â€ says Koleber.

The South Loop is the longest and most complicated section of the new road.

It begins with a four thousand-foot bridge over the floodplain of Haikey Creek.

"And it had to be elevated out of the floodplain so we wouldn't impact the flood levels upstream and downstream. It's a lot more expensive than just a fill roadway but we wouldnâ€™t have been able to build the roadway there without it being elevated because of the floodplain," says Koleber.

The construction is on schedule because of the dry weather. But it's so dry water trucks are used to keep the dust down.

It's also so hot, the first shift begins at one in the morning to escape the heat of the day.

The loop is 13 miles long with 32 bridges. It's scheduled to open in the fall of 2001.

The south loop will connect with the east creek turnpike.

The path has been cleared and some of the bridges are under construction, on the road that will link Broken Arrow, Catoosa and the Will Rogers Turnpike.

One of the last connections with the Creek Turnpike will be along highway 412. The current Route 66 and Will Rogers interchange, about a mile west of Catoosa, has been redesigned. It will move here to connect with the new Creek Turnpike.

"The interchange at 412 there is complicated, there's going to be a large fly over bridge like what we have here at highway 169 to get the traffic from eastbound 412 up to the turnpike," says Koleber.

The east creek connector is 8 miles with 18 bridges. It will open in January 2002.

Overall the project is 33 miles long. When it opens, the toll will jump from the current 55 cents to a projected two dollars twenty five cents.