Road Closures Come To Claremore For Major Highway 20 Realignment

Some road closures are coming to Claremore as part of work on a major realignment of Highway 20.

A new path has been cut through open fields just outside of Claremore, making way for the realignment of Highway 20.

Pamela Rezaee said her quiet neighborhood is changing.

"When we first moved here, there were cows back here so it was pretty unique. Then after it was sold, no more cows," said Rezaee.

She said she's happy to see progress, but has mixed feelings.

"I don't think it's going to be a good thing for us, the people that are living right here. We're getting a highway right in our backyard, exactly," said Rezaee.

As work moves along, road closures will affect traffic. A section of Southhaven road will be closed June 19, along with a section of Country Club road July 5.

"The points where we're closing are the point where the highway is going to cross so we're going to have to demolish part of that roadway to build the new intersections," said T.J. Gerlach with ODOT.

He said this new alignment is the best way to get a five lane stretch of highway through the area.

"Basically what we're doing is realigning the highway instead of going through downtown Claremore, it's going to drop south to where King and Flint Road are," said Gerlach.

Perhaps the most exciting part of this project is a new bridge over the train tracks just north of Flint Road.

"Claremore obviously has a lot of train traffic through there and so we wanted to add a new route over the train tracks," said Gerlach.

Rezaee is happy about the bridge too, but isn't ready quite ready to hear the highway from her back yard. "It's bittersweet," she said.

The entire project is expected to wrap up in the Spring of 2025.

You can find a PDF of the project below: