Senate Democrats Unveil 2020 Plan for Bridges & Roads

Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan and members of the Senate Democratic Caucus unveiled a plan Friday that would fund replacement or rehabilitation of nearly 900 of the state’s 1,600 deficient bridges over the next 15 years.

“Oklahoma is No. 1 in the nation in the percentage of deficient bridges. We’re here today to announce our support for a plan to change that without raising taxes, without threatening funding for our public schools and without mortgaging the future of our highway maintenance plan,” said Morgan, D-Stillwater.

The Senators made their announcement in a news conference at the site of the tragic death in July of a Texas woman killed when a chunk of concrete fell from the State Highway 145 bridge and struck her car as she traveled on below on I-35.

“It was a freak accident but served as a somber reminder of the terrible condition of many of our state’s bridges and roads,” said Senator Susan Paddack, whose district includes the accident site.

The State Highway 145 bridge has been repaired to prevent that same kind of accident from happening at that site again.

Across the state, however, there are hundreds of other bridges that need attention and ODOT simply hasn’t had the funds to attend to them, Paddack said.

“The result of the neglect is that many of our highways are far too dangerous. We must begin now to improve the maintenance of our transportation infrastructure to ensure that our roads and bridges are safe for Oklahoma families for travel,” Morgan said.

Senator Kenneth Corn, who will author the legislation containing the Senate Democrats 2020 Road and Bridges Plan, said the pay-as-you-go proposal will dedicate $102 million increase in the budget of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to pay off existing bond debt, provide state funding for the Heartland Flyer and road and bridge maintenance.

Over the first 15 years, it is projected the plan will pump $1.34 billion into road and bridge maintenance.

“By the year 2020, this plan will allow the Department of Transportation to replace 314 bridges and to repair 552 others,” Corn said. “More than 2,000 miles of state highways will be resurfaced and 120 miles of barriers protecting against crossover accidents will be added to Oklahoma’s interstate system.

“This plan will significantly improve the safety of Oklahoma’s highways.”

Morgan said he’s seen dozens of road building schemes in his 10 years in the Legislature, but never a plan this large to address the maintenance of the state’s roads and bridges.

“There’s a temptation to make this kind of investment in a bond issue, to throw a bunch of money at this problem all at once. That’s not the approach we’ve taken. This plan marks the beginning of new era of highway maintenance in Oklahoma by providing funding that ODOT can count on and program into its plans for decades into the future,” Morgan said.

Even without a bond issue, the $102 million in increased funding will allow ODOT to make increased payments on the 1997 bond issue and still increase the amount of money planned for road and bridge maintenance by more than 160 percent in the first three years of the plan. By the fourth year, the plan will have tripled the amount of money available for projects.

“Oklahomans are going to begin to see results from this plan before the end of this year,” Corn said.