Interstate 35 in Oklahoma

This article is about the section of Interstate 35 in Oklahoma. For the entire route, see Interstate 35.

Interstate 35 marker

Interstate 35
Route information
Maintained by ODOT
Length: 235.96 mi (379.74 km)
Major junctions
South end: I-35 / US 77 at the Texas State Line
  US-70 near Ardmore
I240 in Oklahoma City
I235 in Oklahoma City
I40 in Oklahoma City
I44 in Oklahoma City
US-64 / US-412 / Cimarron Turnpike near Perry
North end: I-35 / Kansas Turnpike at the Kansas State Line
Highway system
SH-34SH-35

Oklahoma is the second state that Interstate 35 (I-35) passes through from south to north. In Oklahoma, I-35 runs from the Red River at the Texas border to the Kansas line near Braman, for a length of 236 miles[1] (372 km). I-35 has one spur route in the state, Interstate 235 in the inner city of Oklahoma City.

Route description

The Oklahoma welcome sign entering the state from Kansas

Interstate 35 enters Oklahoma with U.S. Highway 77 on a bridge over the Red River in Love County, south of Thackerville. US-77 splits off at Exit 1, but parallels the interstate for its entire length in Oklahoma.[2] I-35 maintains a near-due northsouth course through Love and Carter Cos. I-35 provides four exits to Ardmore. After leaving Ardmore, it has a brief concurrency with State Highway 53 and enters Murray County and the Arbuckle Mountains.[2] I-35 then passes through Garvin County and the county seat of Pauls Valley. North of exit 79, I-35 enters McClain County.[2] There, it passes through Purcell and Goldsby.

State Highway 9 joins the interstate crossing over the South Canadian River into Cleveland County, after which it splits off again. It then serves as a major urban interstate in Norman and Moore. Between Norman and Moore, US-77 joins the interstate again. It then enters Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County near milepost 120.[2] Near downtown, I-35 splits off the mainline (which becomes Interstate 235/US-77) and runs concurrent with Interstate 40 for a mile before splitting off to the north again.[2] Interstate 44 then joins I-35 between mileposts 133 and 137.[2] In Edmond US-77 joins the interstate yet again.

Interstate 35 in Goldsby, Oklahoma at milemarker 102.

At milepost 146, I-35 enters Logan County. It serves Guthrie at Exit 153, where US-77 splits off, and at Exit 157.[2] The interstate then crosses the Cimarron River into Payne County and enters Noble County shortly thereafter. It provides two exits to Perry and serves as the western terminus of the Cimarron Turnpike. After providing access to Tonkawa and Blackwell in Kay County, it crosses into Kansas, becoming the Kansas Turnpike.

History

Some sections of I-35 in Oklahoma City were already built in 1953, before the Interstate system was created.[3] Following the passage of the Federal Highway Act of 1956 that created the Interstate Highway System, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation approved the location of the future interstate north of Oklahoma City to the Kansas state line on a route previously surveyed by the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority for a proposed toll road. As a free road, the first five miles (8 km) of that section of I-35 were opened to traffic in 1958 from US-177 near Braman north to the Kansas border where it continued as the Kansas Turnpike. This was followed by completion of the entire route from Oklahoma City northward to Braman by 1963 in several phases including Edmond to Guthrie in 1960, Guthrie to Perry in 1961, Perry to Blackwell in 1962 and Blackwell to Braman in early 1963.

To the south of Oklahoma City, I-35 was completed through Norman south to Purcell in June 1959. In Moore, it opened in two parts: the northern half, connecting Moore to Oklahoma City, opened in January 1960. The southern half, linking it to Norman, was opened to traffic in June 1967.[4] The Moore–Norman segment was originally a four-lane section of US-77 built in 1951 that did not meet full Interstate Highway standards and included several at-grade intersections within the City of Moore including some with traffic signals and upgraded accordingly to include grade separations to bring up to full Interstate Highway standards and frontage roads to serve local traffic needs. Also not up to full Interstate Highway standards prior to 1967 was a section in the vicinity of Lindsey Street in the southern portion of Norman where another at-grade intersection still existed which dated back to the original highway's construction in the early 1950s—this was also brought up to full Interstate Highway standards in 1967 with the construction of interchanges on I-35 at Lindsey and a short distance to the south for the future SH-9 bypass that would be built around the south side of Norman in the early 1970s.

Further south, I-35 was completed from Marietta south to the Red River bridge in 1963, at which point a nearly 90-mile (140 km) gap of uncompleted interstate would exist between Purcell and Marietta until the late 1960s with traffic continuing to be routed over paralleling US-77. This was in large part due to efforts of the towns of Wynnewood, Paoli, and Wayne, fighting to keep I-35 as close as possible to US-77. This was successful due to a threat from Governor Henry Bellmon to build a toll road rather than I-35, and legislation preventing state funds for the interstate from being spent if it were more than 1-mile (1.6 km) from the U.S. route.[5]

The uncompleted gap of I-35 in Southern Oklahoma was narrowed in 1967 and 1968 when two sections were completed from US-70/SH-199 in Ardmore south to SH-32 in Marietta. In 1969, the section of interstate bypassing Ardmore was completed north from US-70 two miles (3 km) to SH-142 and the following year, 1970, brought the completion of I-35 from SH-7 near Davis south to Ardmore, at long last bypassing the winding section of US-77 through the Arbuckle Mountains. This stretch through the Arbuckles was particularly expensive and difficult to construct, taking almost two years and requiring the blasting and removal of 4 million cubic yards of rock.[6] A few months later in January, 1971, I-35 was finally completed across the state of Oklahoma, when the remaining portions of the interstate from Purcell to SH-7 near Davis were opened to traffic.[3]

Future

In 2008, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation announced plans to widen 2 miles (3.2 km) of Interstate 35 through Norman, from the Main Street interchange to the McCall Bridge over the South Canadian River (Exit 109).[7] Controversy surrounding the project arose when early drafts eliminated the SH-74A/Lindsey Street interchange (Exit 108B), due to its proximity to the State Highway 9 interchange (Exit 108A). A public meeting held in Norman attracted 300 attendees, many bearing "Don't Close Lindsey" signs. Attendees cited the impact on local businesses and those attending University of Oklahoma football games as grounds for opposing the closure of the interchange. A former OU economics professor estimated the interchange's closure would cost Norman $100 million over the course of fifteen years.[8]

At the meeting, four proposals were displayed, only one of which displayed no access from Lindsey Street. A second proposal would preserve access to Lindsey Street but require the seizure of a newly built Chevrolet dealership near the interchange. The third proposal would instead send the ramps around the dealership, and the fourth, the highest-cost alternate, would use bridges to prevent Lindsey Street and SH-9 traffic from conflicting. ODOT said their design standards did not require consideration of OU football traffic, because they only considered the 30th highest traffic percentile. One ODOT engineer was quoted as saying, "Otherwise, we'd have to 10-lane everything in Norman."[8] In early 2011, a solution was unveiled that would retain access to Lindsey St. and reconstruct the interchange without displacing the dealership.[9]

In 2014, ODOT completed reconstruction of the Main St. interchange as a Single Point Urban Interchange (SPUI) and widening of I-35 to just south of Main St. In early 2015, ODOT began a two-year, $71 million project to reconstruct the Lindsey St. interchange as a SPUI, reconstruct the SH-9 interchange and complete widening of I-35 to six lanes to the South Canadian River.[10]

ODOT plans to reconstruct I-35/I-240 interchange in southeast Oklahoma City in several phases, the first beginning in 2016.[11]

Naming

Exit list

CountyLocationmikmExitDestinationsNotes
Red River0.000.00 I-35 / US 77 continue south into Texas
Love 1 US-77 northNorthern terminus of US-77 concurrency
 3Winstar Boulevard
 5 SH-153 Thackerville
Marietta15 SH-32 Marietta, Ryan
 21Oswalt Road
Carter 24 SH-77S Lake Murray State Park
Ardmore29 US-70 east Madill, ArdmoreSouthern terminus of US-70 concurrency
31 US-70 west / SH-199 east Ardmore, Waurika, Lone GroveNorthern terminus of US-70 concurrency; signed as exits 31A (east) and 31B (west)
3212th Street
33 SH-142 Ardmore
 40 SH-53 east Springer, Gene AutrySouthern terminus of SH-53 concurrency
 42 SH-53 west ComancheNorthern terminus of SH-53 concurrency
Murray 47 US-77 Turner Falls Area
 51 US-77 Turner Falls Area
 55 SH-7 Davis, Duncan, Sulphur
Garvin 60Ruppe Road
 64 SH-17A east Wynnewood
 66 SH-29 Wynnewood, Elmore City
 70Airline Road
Pauls Valley72 SH-19 Pauls Valley, Maysville
 74Kimberlin Road
 79 SH-145 east Paoli
McClain 86 SH-59 Wayne, Payne
Purcell91 SH-74 to SH-39 Purcell, Lexington
95 To US-77 Purcell, LexingtonSigned only as "Purcell" northbound
 98Johnson Road
Goldsby101Ladd Road
104 SH-74 south Goldsby, Washington
106 SH-9 west ChickashaSouthern terminus of SH-9 concurrency
ClevelandNorman108A SH-9 east TecumsehNorthern terminus of SH-9 concurrency
108BLindsey Street
109Main Street
110Robinson Street, Interstate DriveSigned as exits 110A (west) and 110B (east) southbound for Robinson Street only
112Tecumseh Road
113 US-77 south NormanSouthbound exit and northbound entrance, Southern terminus of US-77 concurrency
114Indian Hills Road
Moore116S. 19th Street
117 SH-37 (S. 4th Street) / Main Street, N. 5th StreetSigned only for SH-37 (S. 4th Street) southbound
118N. 12th Street, Main Street, N. 5th StreetSigned only for N. 12th Street northbound
119AShields BoulevardNorthbound exit and southbound entrance
119BN. 27th Street
Oklahoma City120S.E. 89th Street
Oklahoma121AS.E. 82nd StreetSouthbound exit and northbound entrance
121B I240 / US-62 west / SH-3 to I40 Lawton, Fort SmithI-240 exits 4A-B; Southern terminus of US-62 concurrency.
122AS.E. 66th StreetNo northbound entrance
122BS.E. 59th Street
123AS.E. 51st StreetNo northbound entrance
123BS.E. 44th StreetNo southbound entrance
124AGrand Boulevard
124BS.E. 29th Street, S.E. 25th StreetSigned as exit 125A southbound
125BS.E. 15th StreetSigned as exit 125D southbound
126 I235 north (US-77 north) / I40 west (US-270 west) Edmond, State Capitol, Oklahoma Health Center, AmarilloSouthern terminus of I-40/US-270 concurrency, Northern terminus of US-77 concurrency, I-40 exits 151B-C, I-235 exits 1A-B
127Eastern Avenue, M.L. King AvenueSouthbound exit is via exit 128
128 I40 east / US-270 east Ft. SmithNorthern terminus of I-40/US-270 concurrency
129N.E. 10th Street
130 US-62 east (N.E. 23rd Street)Northern terminus of US-62 concurrency
131N.E. 36th Street
132AN.E. 50th Street
132BN.E. 63rd StreetNorthbound exit and southbound entrance
133 I44 west / SH-66 west Lawton, AmarilloSouthern terminus of I-44/SH-66 concurrency
134Wilshire Boulevard
135Britton Road
136Hefner Road
137N.E. 122nd Street
138A I44 / Turner Turnpike east TulsaNorthern terminus of I-44 concurrency
138B Kilpatrick Turnpike west
138CSooner RoadSouthbound exit and northbound entrance
Edmond138DMemorial Road
139S.E. 33rd Street
140S.E. 15th Street
141 US-77 south / SH-66 east (2nd Street) Edmond, TulsaNorthern terminus of SH-66 concurrency, southern terminus of US-77 concurrency
142Danforth RoadNorthbound exit, no entrance.
 143Covell Road
 146Waterloo Road
Logan 151Seward Road
Guthrie153 US-77 north GuthrieNorthern terminus of US-77 concurrency
157 SH-33 Guthrie, Perkins, Cushing
Payne 170Mulhall Road
 174 SH-51 Stillwater, Hennessey
Noble 180Orlando Road
Perry185 US-77 Perry, Covington
186 US-64 east (Fir Street) PerrySouthern terminus of US-64 concurrency
 193Airport RoadNorthbound exit and southbound entrance
 194 US-64 west / US-412 / Cimarron Turnpike east Tulsa, EnidNorthern terminus of US-64 concurrency; signed as exits 194A (east) and 194B (west); US 412/Cimarron Turnpike exits 1A-B
 203 SH-15 Billings, Marland
KayTonkawa211Fountain Road
214 US-60 Tonkawa, Ponca City
 218Hubbard Road
Blackwell222 SH-11 Blackwell, Medford
Braman230Braman Road
 231 US-177 Braman
Oklahoma–Kansas state line235.96379.74 I-35 continues north into Kansas
Kansas Turnpike begins
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

References

  1. Stuve, Eric. Interstate Highways. OKHighways. 27 February 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Official State Map (PDF) (Map) (2009–10 ed.). Oklahoma Department of Transportation. Retrieved 2010-07-05.
  3. 1 2 Cockerell, Penny. "50 Years: As the intersection of Interstates 35, 40, and 44, Oklahoma is at America's crossroads." The Daily Oklahoman 29 June 2006: 2A.
  4. Medley, Robert. "Higways[sic] continue to drive economy." The Daily Oklahoman 29 June 2006: 1D.
  5. McNichol, Dan. The Roads that Built America: The Incredible Story of the U.S. Interstate System. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2006. ISBN 1-4027-3468-9
  6. Farmer, Ann. "Old Mountain Area Becomes A New Discovery" The Nevada (Mo.) Sunday Herald (republished for the AP by The Greenville (Tex.) Herald Banner) 9 June 1972: 12.
  7. "Norman residents plead with Oklahoma state road officials". NewsOK.com.
  8. 1 2 Cole-Frowe, Carol. "Fired up: Residents fight for Lindsey Street interchange." The Norman Transcript 19 September 2008: A1.
  9. "Interstate 35 design plan for Norman widening project unveiled". NewsOK.com.
  10. "Work to begin on I-35 widening project in Norman". NewsOK.com.
  11. "Construction Work Plan". state.ok.us.

External links

Route map: Bing / Google

Interstate 35
Previous state:
Texas
Oklahoma Next state:
Kansas
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