Highway 75 detour at 71st Street South

Big changes coming on a busy highway. The state of Oklahoma plans a detour for traffic on US Highway 75 - starting Saturday. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says drivers using Highway 75 anytime

Friday, April 29th 2005, 10:26 am

By: News On 6

Big changes coming on a busy highway. The state of Oklahoma plans a detour for traffic on US Highway 75 - starting Saturday.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says drivers using Highway 75 anytime Saturday should be ready for delays and consider other highways.

The state will gradually divert traffic off 75 at 71st. Once it's done - traffic should be fine - while it's changing over - it could be a mess. 24,000 cars a day travel that section of US Highway 75. It's Jeff Call's job at Sherwood Construction to make sure they don't hit anyone on his work crew. â€œMost of them slow down; some of them hit the gas.â€

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation hopes people watch for the signs and watch for changes during the day Saturday. They're closing off a mile of highway, to demolish and rebuild the bridge over Highway 75.

Construction crews still have last minute work to do on the detour but they say by early Saturday morning it will be ready for traffic. One it's open, and traffic is off Highway 75, they can get to work on that bridge. The traffic on highway 75 will be rerouted as of Saturday. The detour will take traffic slightly west of the existing intersection.

Drivers shouldn't notice much difference on this slight detour - except they can't access 71st Street. The biggest difference will for people crossing - or wanting to cross the 71st Street Bridge over the river. They will have to use 61st or 81st to make the connection with Highway 75.

The detour should only be needed 6 months. Until then, ODOT, and the contractors handling the job, hope drivers will watch out for them - while they're looking forward to finishing the job. Traffic should be fully diverted by 6 PM Saturday.

The entire construction job won't be done until late next spring.