Paul L. McCord Jr.

I-40 Downtown

Anyone that has driven I-40 downtown has probably noticed the increase in their automobile suspension repair bills.  This bridge that spans close to three miles has been falling apart piece by piece.  This stretch of freeway is being rebuilt six blocks to the south and will mostly be underground.  This photos was just meant as a joke to illustrate how bad I-40 is.  This stretch of six lane road was designed to carry less than half of the current daily traffic more than three decades ago.  There is hope as this relocated I-40 will be ten lanes and will be wisely at ground level or below.  When the current stretch was designed it was clearly done while the engineering staff was under the influence of drugs.  There is no shoulder to pull over and it is all above groud making it susceptable to icing during the winter.  It seems like at least once  a month we are hearing how some poor soul was driving under it and found a large chunk of concrete landing on their car.

The new I-40 will be built along the Oklahoma River (Canadian River renamed) andwill be better suited for limiting noise and will be more scenic as it goes through a new tourist area being formed.  This area is being called Core to Shore, in reverence to the city’s core (downtown) to the shore of the river.  This area is currently rundown abandoned homes and businesses.  The city is currently acquiring all this land and rezoning it so that it will be a more tourist friendly area along the river.  From what I hear it will be very nice when it is finished.  The current I-40 will be taken down and a new main street will be built in its place.  The new I-40 will begin at the Dallas Junction (I-40, I-35, and I-235 Interchange) and will rejoin at the Villa street bridge.  I can already see the bridges going in over the new locations.  The city has already cleared the area where all the old abandoned homes were and the new freeway is being built.    Those that have driven on the current I-40 can actually sympathize with the comparison of the egg carton photo above though it is clearly an exageration.

Despite all the negative you hear on the national news things are going well hear in Oklahoma City.  The 54 storey, 925 foot Devon tower is still being planned and construction should start this year.  The arrival of our new NBA team, the Oklahoma City Thunder has made Bricktown all the more desirable.  With high end homes being built downtown like these in Maywood Park things are looking very good.

In addition to some of the things mentioned above there are new homes being built all over town so things are not necessarily as bad as the news would have you believe.  The old General Motors assembly plant in Southeast OKC has been taken over by Tinker AFB and will be used to repair jet engines.  It will now be called Tinker Aearospace Complex (TAC) and was purchased by the city by a $55 million bond issue.  The city then leased it out to Tinker AFB for 100 years.  There are many other projects going on around the metro so things look very promising.  The current state of Interstate 40 will soon be increased by four lanes and be a much smoother drive.  Things are sure to improve as time goes on and I can hardly wait to keep you up to date on  the new developments.