ODOT to hold meeting for Roosevelt Bridge project

The five-year project for building the new Willis Bridge is winding down with the completion of the new bridge and destruction of the old one. This means ODOT is now switching gears and turning the focus to the Roosevelt Bridge that connects Kingston and Mead.

ODOT will be hosting a public meeting on Tuesday, July 25 for input on ideas to improve the US-70 bridge.

In March 2022, ODOT released its eight-year plan for projects across Oklahoma and the Roosevelt Bridge was on the plan. Anthony Echelle, an ODOT engineer, said the Roosevelt Bridge needs major work.

“The current bridge has served its term,” Echelle said. “It is structurally deficient, functionally optimally which basically means it’s not, it doesn’t serve the needs of the type of traffic using it right now.”

The increased traffic travelling across the bridge is one of the key factors on the improvement needs. Echelle said that is one of the issues being looked at.

“It doesn’t make any sense to build anything less than a four-lane highway, currently its two,” Echelle said. “The demand from traffic is there and its increasing.”

Due to the large price tag on the Durant/Calera project, ODOT will have to get creative to fully finance the Roosevelt Bridge project. Echelle said projects aren’t cheap and he believes the Roosevelt Bridge project won’t be an exception.

“In Durant and Calera, we have a major project underway,” Echelle said. “The price tag on that project is 152 million dollars, that was the bid amount. That’s the largest project that ODOT has ever awarded a contract to. I think this project will exceed that one.”

“We’re going to explore any and every option on how to finance this project,” Echelle continued while talking about funding. “To do that we need to know what we’re financing, that’s why we’re working very hard to outline what is the most feasible options to consider, what the cost of that would be, so that if we can identify nontraditional funding for it and secure that nontraditional funding we can react quickly.”

The meeting will be July 25 at 6:00 p.m. in the Kingston High School cafeteria located at 400 NE 3rd Street. Information for the meeting can be found at https://us70laketexoma.transportationplanroom.com/home. Any residents who are unable to make the meeting can submit their comments or questions by visiting https://us70laketexoma.transportationplanroom.com/submit-a-comment.