Crews Begin Resurfacing Project On The Broken Arrow Expressway

A major road construction project on the Broken Arrow Expressway gets underway on Monday. Between South Peoria Avenue and South Lewis Avenue, lanes will be shut down in both directions one at a time for about a year.

ODOT says it will be working on a full pavement reconstruction project. According to ODOT Spokesperson TJ Gerlach, all pavement surfaces have a service life, and this stretch of road was due for some work.

"Well all pavement surfaces have a service life, and this area is just pretty much at the end of its useful life. So we've had this project programmed into our construction work plan for a couple of years now, and it's just time to do it, to start on it," Gerlach said.

While the majority of the project will only see one lane closed down at a time in both directions, there could be about a month when two lanes in both directions will be shut down for work. However, ODOT will make sure to give drivers advanced notice when it is time to start that phase of the project.

During this project, ODOT will also be working to remove the grass medians in favor of barriers as well as improving the shoulders on the BA Expressway.

"So, adding the barrier wall is just to increase safety to make sure that there’s much less potential for anything serious to happen like a crossover. and just adding the shoulder and improving the shoulders is just going to give people who might have a problem with their vehicle to have extra room to get off the road and get out of people's way," Gerlach said.

Drivers can also expect the speed limit to drop from 55 mph to 45 mph on that stretch of the BA Expressway.