Broadway Extension/Interstate 44 Junction
So many of us have to go through this ritual of death-defying traveling that it’s hard not to notice that a significant change is about to hit us with the construction underway from what was the NE 63 southbound ramp onto Broadway and the confusing lane changes and merges along westbound I-44 under Broadway Extension.
The purpose of this construction is clear: the Oklahoma Department of Transportation is committed to eliminating the traffic nightmares that occur on this junction everyday. But what will it all look like? I was pondering this very question when I recalled this very helpful graphic distributed by the transportation department a couple of years ago:
Now it’s all very, very clear. State highway engineers plan to scare us into never, ever, ever driving through this junction again. At first glance, I’m thinking a night spent with Freddy Kreuger, Jason Voorhees, the Toxic Avenger, Pennywise the Clown, the Kardashian sisters, Jack Torrance, Ghostface, Chucky, Lady Gaga, Norman Bates, Pinhead, the cast of Jersey Shore, Leatherface, Michael Myers and Tracey Zeeck would be an easier sell for most folks than making their way through this concrete spaghetti.
Of course, I could be entirely wrong. Tracey isn’t really that scary.
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Comments
I know your comments are tongue in cheek, Steve. But examing the depiction actually makes the lanes fairly easy to figure out. I think it will make an immense improvement when completed.
I work right above all of it and have seen all the work to this point transpire. It will be better, but they are still leaving the clover leafs. This is the third phase and it still has another year and a half. First phase was Broadway Extension to Edmond and the second phase was 36th street. In another 8 years the interchange will look like that picture and it will be obsolete.
This is why we read our signs while we are driving. Ah screw it, I’ll just do whatever my gps tells me to do….
The first real highway overpass in OKC. Welcome to the big leagues.
This is actually still pretty tame compared to most of the ones in Texas.
The upper right of that picture looks like a nightmare! BUT probably anything will be better than what we currently have…
Scared of Lady GaGa? Oh, you BabyBoomers. ;P
It doesn’t look that confusing to me. Definitely looks like it’ll be very simple and smooth-going as compared to the dangerous clover-leaf designs.
It’s interesting to note that this project won’t do anything to address the conflicts between Westbound I-44 traffic entering the Southbound lanes on Broadway Extension and Southbound Broadway Extension traffic exiting to go Eastbound on I-44.
Will that be fixed in a later phase of the project?
Studying the illustration more closely, I now note that the traffic conflict I mentioned above will actually take place on a frontage road section of Broadway, rather than the main lanes. This should make the situation much less troublesome.
Concrete spagetti is a great line.
I’m going to miss seeing the deer that lived in that urban greenway to the west and north of Santa Fe/NE 50th. Back in the 00s, I took the south off-ramp every day for five years. For two years a lone man’s dress shoe sat on the guardrail. Through ice, snow, rain and heat, the shoe didn’t move. Then, one day, it wasn’t there anymore. I’m sharing this story b/c I know TZ will like it.
I have to write that the department of transportation is a little scary in their thinking. After going south on western to the new i40, I realized there is no dedicated rightnturn lane to the interstate but just two lanes and the right lane congested because first car wanted to go straight. poor planning I think. Can’t wait for the design flaw in this.
Re: the comment just above about Western/I-40 going west. I have seen the mile plus backup of cars coming south on Western at evening slow hour (no one gets to rush!). I, too, thought about a dedicated lane, BUT, the people coming from the south have to turn onto that ramp and it would be very dangerous for both southbound and northbound cars to turn at the same time. And why is this?? ODOT told us that there will be no more clover leaves?/leafs?, only turns. Right!!
Then I see the VERY scary situation they proposed for the I-44 problem, and I am more than perplexed. If you go west onto I-44 now, and there is no patrol car sitting on I-44 to warn cars on I-44 to get in the left lane, you not only have to avoid an accident with the cars coming from the north, but you also have to figure out how to merge into the traffic on I-44 without getting creamed by them and the car behind you. It’s already a nightmare and I don’t see a solution in the photo. Does ODOT have any traffic engineers that care about people and safety??
Also, please don’t compare us to Texas. The mixmaster/mixing bowl/whatever? in Dallas is beyond a nice comment. Gadszooks!! Who planned that??
I drove the southbound to westbound ramp Saturday and seeing it three dimensionally helps put the rest of the diagram in perspective. I think it will all be easy to navigate EXCEPT for the two corners of the cloverleaf that will still be there. What the h were they thinking? How can you take out half of an unsafe interchange and expect the other half to automatically become safe?
Work in the city? Live in the city. Or at least don’t drive that nightmare at rush hour.