The Oklahoma Department of Transportation will receive $123.8 million in federal funds to replace the Roosevelt Bridge on Highway 70 over Lake Texoma between Bryan and Marshall counties, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced last week.
Buttigieg said in a news release the new bridge will accommodate future traffic demands and improve the efficiency and reliability of the movement of people and freight. It will also have a bicycle and pedestrian crossing.
The new bridge will be constructed south of the current one.
The grant is part of an announcement of more than $5 billion in Large Bridge Project awards through the Federal Highway Administration’s competitive Bridge Investment Program that is part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, according to a news release.
The current bridge was constructed in the 1940s and officials say it is outdated.
The bridge was discussed in a Durant Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors meeting July 17, the same day the Biden administration announced funding for the project. Board members were not aware of the federal funding of the project at the time of the meeting that morning.
Brandon Johnson, who is second vice president of the chamber, serves on the chamber’s legislative committee and he spoke about a recent meeting he attended with Anthony Echelle, ODOT’s District Two engineer.
“The really exciting thing on this is that current legislation has approved a $200 million bonding capacity for this project,” Johnson said. “The cost is 250 (million) which is crazy in Anthony’s world and he covers nine counties.”
According to Johnson, Echelle said that is two years worth of his budget for just that one project.
“So, where it was slated for 2029, with the bonding approval, they are able to now push it up,” Johnson said. “So, he thinks it’s probably a ‘27 start, maybe ‘26, we’ll see. They’re still working through the environmental side of it and he didn’t know the date of that with everybody. With all of the players involved, it might take a little bit longer.”
Johnson said it is really exciting to get the project pushed up.
“He still doesn’t know about the current bridge,“Johnson said. “He said that ODOT has no interest in keeping that thing or maintaining it and he wasn’t sure if anybody else has an interest either just because of the cost of it.”
Johnson said a part of the plan is to raise the new bridge so it will not flood and shut the highway down as has happened in the past.
“This is really exciting,” Johnson said. “I think everybody knows and agrees that we need a new bridge so we might even get it before we initially thought.”
