LAWTON – Rehabilitation of a 16-mile stretch of the H.E. Bailey Turnpike is part of an ongoing project that could allow speed limits to be raised on the heavily traveled corridor connecting Lawton to the Oklahoma City metro area.
A “dowel bar retrofit” project is being performed on the toll road between mile marker 62 north of Elgin and mile marker 78 just south of Chickasha, where a previous pavement rehab project ended.
Emery Sapp & Sons received a contract from the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority for “just over $8 million” to do the job, said Public Information Officer Bryce Boyer with the Strategic Communications Division of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.
Construction started March 28 and is projected to be completed in late September, weather permitting, Boyer said.
Because of the blistering summer heat, some of the work is being performed at night, state Rep. Daniel Pae said.
Average daily traffic volume on that section of the toll road is approximately 11,000 vehicles, OTA records indicate.
Nearly 24 miles of the H.E.B. previously were rehabbed under a $13.76 million dowel bar retrofit contract.
A dowel bar retrofit is a concrete pavement rehabilitation tool that restores load transfer across joints and cracks by installing metal dowel bars linking the adjoining slabs. “By linking slabs, the traffic load is shared, preventing differential vertical movement of the slabs at the joints and cracks,” which in turn eliminates “the formation of faults or step-offs,” explained Interstate Improvement, the contractor on that job.
“It is these faults that cause the rough ride and wheel slap that is sensed when traveling on a concrete roadway that has lost its ability to transfer load from one panel to the next,” the Minnesota company said.
That pavement rehab project started at mile post 78 (in the vicinity of the SH-19 junction that leads to Lindsay) and extended north to mile post 101.6 (about a mile north of the SH-9 junction leading to Norman).
Average daily traffic volume on that section of the toll road ranges from about 10,200 vehicles near the SH-9 interchange to approximately 11,400 at Chickasha, depending on the particular highway interchange, OTA records indicate.
Both dowel bar retrofit projects, coupled with implementation of cashless tolling on the entire H.E. Bailey and demolition of the now obsolete toll plazas, are preludes to raising the speed limit on the turnpike from 75 miles per hour to 80 mph, according to Pae.
“After the pavement rehab project is finished and the toll plazas are demoed, a traffic study will be performed and then I expect the speed limit to be raised to 80,” the Lawton Republican said Wednesday.
If a traffic safety study indicates an increase in the speed limit is justified, the issue will be presented first to the Department of Public Safety Commissioner; if the DPS commissioner gives his blessing, then it will be submitted to the Turnpike Authority board for final approval, Boyer said.
Pae said he thinks the speed limit will be raised on the northern leg, between Lawton and OKC, sometime during the first half of next year, while the southern leg, from Lawton to the Texas state line, will be raised in the latter half of next year.
“People just need to be patient,” Pae advised. “All of this work takes a while to complete.”
The H.E. Bailey opened to motorists 58 years ago, in 1964.
The main section of the toll road is 86.4 miles long, extending from southwest Oklahoma City to just north of the Texas state line; an 8.2-mile spur connects the main line to SH-9.