AASHTO Journal - Oklahoma DOT Gets Approval for $8.6B Work Plan

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation recently received approval for its $8.6 billion eight-year Construction Work Plan; a plan aimed at enhancing the safety and travel reliability of statewide interstate and highway systems.

[Above photo by Oklahoma DOT]

“Our eight-year plan serves as a guide for the department’s construction and maintenance efforts and allows us to ensure we are addressing as many transportation needs as we can statewide,” said Oklahoma DOT Executive Director Tim Gatz in a statement.

“Our main focus continues to be safety and reliability, and we are working to enhance safety by improving interchanges, adding shoulders to rural two-lane highways and addressing bridges statewide,” he noted.

[Editor’s note: In a recent episode of AASHTO’s “State DOT 2-Minute Update” Gatz talked about his department’s initiative to improve safety on over 5,000 miles of rural two-lane highways by adding safety shoulders to reduce high fatality and severe crash rates. Over the next eight years, 1,100 miles of these highways will be upgraded to address this critical safety concern in rural Oklahoma, he said.]

Oklahoma DOT’s eight-year plan includes 1,647 total projects, according to the agency, which included 3,755 miles of roadway improvements and 954 miles of safety improvements on two-lane highways with deficient or no shoulders.

The agency noted that Oklahoma’s overall number of structurally deficient bridges has decreased from 1,168 structures to fewer than 50, which are schedule to be addressed in this plan.

Gatz pointed out that Oklahoma DOT, like many other state departments of transportation, has taken inflation and the changing economic climate in supply costs into consideration and adjusted its infrastructure plans accordingly.

For example, construction costs have increased more than 60 percent since 2022, Oklahoma DOT said. However, while some projects have been redistributed to accommodate these increases, no projects were removed from the agency’s latest work plan.

An additional area of special interest is the southern I-35 corridor; home to 14 projects within the 8-year plan totaling more than $377 million that will widen nearly 53 miles of I-35 between the Oklahoma River in Oklahoma City and the Oklahoma-Texas state line.

Also receiving approval is the Oklahoma DOT’s four-year $494 million Asset Preservation Plan, which includes 276 projects geared towards preventative maintenance – such as pavement resurfacing, bridge painting and joint-sealing, among other efforts – all aimed at extending the life of the state’s highway system in fiscal years 2025-2028.