Construction Begins At Busy Highway 75 Intersection In Glenpool

Construction has now begun at the busy intersection of Highway 75 and 141st Street in Glenpool, where a bridge will be built on the highway.

The goal is to make the area less congested with traffic and safer too. People living in town who frequently drive through the intersection say this is a much-needed change.

“I leave out of here about 4:30, and there's cars lined up in both directions,” said Becky Dunn, a driver who travels from Mounds to work, passing through the intersection.

When the light turns red at the busy intersection of Highway 75 and 141st Street, traffic stops and frustrations start for some drivers. “Yeah, it makes me question my vocabulary a little bit,” Dunn joked.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation is planning to build a bridge on the highway that will go over 141st Street as part of a plan to ease congestion.

“This is basically the only traffic light on 75 from Okmulgee to Bartlesville, so it's a huge stretch,” said TJ Gerlach with ODOT. “We get a lot of backup there, a lot of congestion.”

Construction will include on- and offramps in both directions, turnaround lanes, and frontage roads to get people in and out of nearby businesses. ODOT wants to finish the project with as few disruptions as possible.

“During the majority of construction, we are going to keep two lanes open in both directions on 75, just so that it'll be status quo as we are now,” Gerlach said.

Drivers like Dunn are looking forward to seeing the slowdowns ease up. “I saw a diagram of what they're going to do; it looks complicated, but I think it's going to work because they're going to give you turnarounds, all kinds of stuff,” she said.

ODOT hopes the $31 million project will be wrapped up by next July.

The highway is narrowed to one lane Monday and Tuesday night so crews can put in barrier walls and stripes ahead of the bridge construction.