Hole in a bridge on the Broken Arrow Expressway prompts emergency repair

One of Tulsa's major highways was reduced to one lane Monday after someone reported a large hole in a bridge. <br/><br/>It's the second time in a year-and-a-half, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation

Monday, January 30th 2006, 12:50 pm

By: News On 6

One of Tulsa's major highways was reduced to one lane Monday after someone reported a large hole in a bridge.

It's the second time in a year-and-a-half, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation has had to do major repair work on the Broken Arrow Expressway bridge over 15th Street between the Lewis and Peoria exits.

News on 6 anchor Tami Marler says a national road program recently gave Tulsa's bridges an "F", for problems just like this. In fact, they said this stretch of state Highway 51 needs to be completely rebuilt.

According to the TRIP report, nearly 33,000 cars travel over this nearly 40 year-old bridge every single day.

ODOT was alerted to the hole in the westbound lanes of the BA Expressway Monday morning. Workers immediately closed traffic to one lane and got to work. ODOT maintenance engineer Mike Smith: â€œthis structure, as several other structures in Oklahoma need maintenance work on the structures. Today we're going to do a fix, a permanent fix, and then with the wear and tear on the structure, there will be other areas that will need attention too."

The bridge was reopened to traffic late Monday evening.