Pike Off OTA released a statement on Friday celebrating the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s removal of roads for the ACCESS Oklahoma project plans.
Amy Cerato, president of Pike Off OTA and Oklahomans for Responsible Transportation, said in a statement that limiting access roads removes Norman’s requirement to fund and maintain them, saving hundreds of millions of dollars. She added that the rejection could open the OTA to scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as the project would now have a different revenue projection.
“We all know that the original revenue outlook was still billions of dollars in the red and now with this limited access their revenue projections are even more disastrous,” Cerato said. “It is interesting that the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority thinks they can continue with this project without going back to the Council for Bond Oversight or their bondholders and reassessing their revenue studies based on this new information.”
According to Cerato, Pike Off OTA and Oklahomans for Responsible Transportation want the OTA to stop its current work and consider alternatives for traffic improvement, including interchange improvements on Indian Hills Road.
“Compare the finances of a toll bridge and a federally supported bridge from Newcastle to I-35, for example,” Cerato said. “The poor financial projections on the East-West Connector make it certain that tolls will have to increase throughout the entire system across the state.”
ACCESS Oklahoma is a $5 billion, 15-year plan to develop new turnpikes and expand and improve existing highways across the state. It was approved by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in August 2023.
Two proposed turnpikes, the East-West Connector and the South Extension, would have run a combined 47 miles around the Norman area.
On Aug. 27, the Norman City Council unanimously rejected a resolution that would have allowed the OTA to construct parts of its ACCESS Oklahoma plan through “critical areas” of Norman, including the Lake Thunderbird watershed and the Canadian River corridor.
Following the rejection, OTA released a statement confirming it would not build access or frontage roads within Norman.
In an email to OU Daily in early September, Lisa Shearer-Salim, OTA communication and marketing manager, wrote the preliminary estimate for the frontage roads was more than $150 million, including the right-of-way for construction. She added constructing access roads in the future would cost more for taxpayers than if they were built alongside the turnpike because the OTA would have assisted in funding.
“OTA was offering to partner with the city by purchasing the (right-of-way) and constructing the frontage roads,” Shearer-Salim wrote.
According to Shearer-Salim, the frontage roads would have been a part of the local infrastructure, which would require the city to maintain them.
Shearer-Salim wrote the OTA still considers Norman a project partner in ACCESS Oklahoma. She added any future infrastructure requests would require the city to contact OTA.
“We naturally will continue to work with the city on any issues of concern,” Shearer-Salim wrote.
This story was edited by Anusha Fathepure and Ana Barboza. Geethika Kollu and Grace Rhodes copy edited this story.
