OTA scraps plans for frontage roads, several interchanges along proposed Norman turnpike

NORMAN, Okla. ( KFOR ) — The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) announced Friday it cut the number of exits and frontage roads it will build along a planned turnpike through Norman, after the City of Norman declined to enter a partnership agreement with them.

Last month, Norman City Council members voted unanimously against signing a proposed partnership agreement which would have allowed the OTA to connect its proposed East-West Connector Turnpike with City of Norman-maintained streets and infrastructure.

The agreement would have also allowed the OTA to build one-way frontage roads on both sides of the proposed turnpike, which they would have turned over to the city to maintain upon completion.

On Friday, OTA announced—because the city did not sign that partnership agreement—they would be eliminating the proposed frontage roads, as well as proposed interchanges at 48 ^th Ave., 36 ^th St., and Broadway Ave. from their plans.

The eliminations will substantially reduce the amount of property the OTA will need to purchase or seize through eminent domain in order to build the East-West Connector.

“And I think that is fabulous news for the City of Norman,” said Amy Cerato, with the group PikeOff OTA.

While OTA leaders said they supported the idea of frontage roads because they would help with traffic flow and attract developers to build along them, Cerato and her group did not want them built if the City of Norman had to pay to maintain them.

“Just the initial cost of laying those roads and all the signaling that the City of Norman would have to do to expand our infrastructure would be hundreds of millions of dollars,” Cerato said.

In a vi d eo released Friday, OTA Executive Director Joe Echelle announced the frontage roads and the three interchanges with city-owned roads were officially scrapped from the plan.

“While we believe the frontage roads are more connections for local traffic benefits, motorists and the community in the long term, we respect the City of Norman’s recent decision to not add to its infrastructure at this time,” Echelle said.

The new plans will mean drivers on the East-West Connector will have one chance to exit it between I-44 and I-35, and only one other chance to exit it between I-35 and the proposed South Extension Turnpike.

Cerato said she and her group will definitely take the announcement as a win.

“People told us from the beginning, you can’t beat them you can’t beat them,” Cerato said. “Today was a huge win in that the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority reluctantly removed those service roads, which would have provided them the revenue that they said they had, but was also giving their developer friends a chance to develop that the property that the developers had bought years in advance of this project.”

With that in mind, she says her group’s fight isn’t anywhere near over. They don’t want to see the East-West Connector built as a toll road at all.

“The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority should stop their project,” Cerato said. “This is a time that we should talk about a federally-funded bridge to Newcastle, because that’s the only project that I’ve heard people actually want. They want that access from Newcastle to I-35. Let’s build that as a federally-funded, tax-supported bridge. A free bridge. Because, with the lack of revenue that the OTA is going to generate on this East-West Connector, it’s going to cost $100 to cross that bridge. And all of the turnpikes across the state are going to take a huge increase in tolls because they’re going to build another loser in their system that cannot pay for itself.”

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