Crews Work To Widen 116th Street In Owasso

Monday kicks off a much-anticipated improvement project to 116th Street North between Garnett and 129th East Avenue.

Many folks affected by the inconvenience say they're excited about the outcome. In the next 12-14 months, the two-lane road will be widened to 5 lanes, a big improvement for a part of Owasso that sees a lot of traffic. 

"We're just watching our city grow, when we first came to this area there was nothing out in this area," says Don Cason.

He’s the pastor at Hope Chapel. His church has been around for more than 20 years and says despite the disruption, it's a dream come true for drivers.

"It's an inconvenience, however, it's going to be good in the long run. Right now, being a two-lane road this road has been extremely busy in the afternoon," Cason says.

Public Works Director Roger Stevens says the project is much needed and agrees that it's worth the year-long construction mess. 

"Improvements are forever. Construction, something that we're dealing with now, the inconvenience is temporary," says Stevens.

He says the project will build sidewalks, bike lanes, and a multi-use trail but it will affect properties like the concrete work in front of the recently built fire station.

“Overall dollar-wise when we look at the concrete that we may have to not be able to salvage is very minimal when it comes to cost," says Stevens.

The same goes for Hope Chapel. Pastor Carson says his church will have to remove its sign to make way for the new road.

"It goes with the territory, when they begin to do expansions, then we have to be understanding of that."

The project is expected to be mostly done next July.

Pastor Don Carson says his parking lot here has been full of construction workers, and trucks, but he doesn't mind. He says he's planning to feed them all lunch soon.