Winganon Causeway At Oologah Lake To Get Major Facelift

Rogers County Commissioners recently approved a $19 million project to improve the causeway that crosses Oologah Lake.

Located right in the middle of Oologah Lake, Rogers County commissioners say the Winganon Causeway is the only way to cross the lake for the roughly 870 drivers that use it every day. Major flooding in 2018 and 2019 washed out part of the road, a headache for Winganon Cafe manager Bailey Bible.

"We get all the Oologah, Talala, Nowata, we got people from Bartlesville that come through here and use these different couple ramps that are just west and south of us, and when that bridge was closed, they couldn't come through and so the store loses traffic," says Bible.

The road was patched up by the county and since then, they have been able to secure about $15 million in federal funding to redo the causeway completely. With $3 million from the state and $800,000 from the county, the road will be raised nearly two feet, widened with shoulders on both sides, and the rocky riprap on either side will be improved.

The county says the project should go out to bid by April and take at least two years to complete. They say the plan is to keep at least one lane open during the project. The county also says East 300 road between Highway 169 and the causeway will be replaced. The bridge, however, will stay unchanged.