Turnpike expansions, including $5 billion ACCESS Oklahoma, will harm state

An effort is underway to broaden turnpike development below the guise of financial growth. After reviewing the troubled historical past and previous efficiency of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, we imagine tasks such because the controversial $5 billion ACCESS Oklahoma venture will harm the state. 

The proposed turnpike expansions will not enhance freeway security, cut back site visitors or convey growth or prosperity. Instead, they’re more likely to lead to annual double-digit toll will increase for all drivers and widespread environmental destruction.

In quick, we imagine these new turnpikes would grow to be a number of the costliest errors in Oklahoma historical past.

The three new turnpikes deliberate for the Norman-Oklahoma City space have been resoundingly criticized by native officers and civil engineers as a result of the proposed routes make no financial, engineering or environmental sense. No site visitors or environmental research have been shared with the general public, and two of the proposed alignments — the south extension and east-west connector deliberate for east and north Norman — would endanger the town’s major consuming water reservoir.

The routes are too far east to divert site visitors from Interstate 35 and would as an alternative pave over the uncommon geological formation that produces the world’s solely barite rose rocks — the official state rock of Oklahoma. The proposed turnpikes would additionally destroy and pressure a whole lot of households out of their properties at a time when out there housing is at a 10-year low.

Furthermore, the development of the three new proposed turnpikes is legally unauthorized and prohibited below Oklahoma’s Turnpike Enabling Act. The act instructions that the Legislature, and never the OTA, will get to determine whether or not and the place a brand new turnpike is constructed. The three new turnpikes violate the rule of regulation, the rules of consultant democracy and are a transparent case of presidency overreach.

City officers in Norman have repeatedly denounced the OTA for preserving these tasks secret — no elected officers nor any of the over 650 straight impacted householders whose properties lie within the path of the proposed routes had been invited to participate within the planning course of. A choose in Cleveland County agreed.

On Dec. 1, the OTA was discovered responsible of willfully violating the state’s Open Meeting Act in a authorized case that represented 246 affected property house owners. The penalties are vital because it invalidates all contract work on the ACCESS Oklahoma turnpike tasks carried out thus far.

Twelve engineering corporations should now return greater than $30 million already obtained for advance design and right-of-way work. An extra $113.5 million in contracts for pending work had been invalidated.

This authorized ruling reveals the excessive value of the OTA’s lack of oversight and poor administration. Instead of bringing prosperity and far wanted growth, the OTA has created uncertainty and monetary hardship for its contractors.

Several different authorized challenges are underway with allegations of OTA skirting the principles. Tulsa-area residents also needs to pay attention to the quite a few controversies surrounding the lately accomplished Gilcrease Turnpike extension, including surprising tolls. 

With this observe document, we’re comfy predicting the ACCESS Oklahoma tasks will fail, and people failures will be unbearably costly. OTA already has the best debt burden of any state company, and Oklahoma has extra turnpike miles per capita than some other state.

ACCESS Oklahoma would create $5 billion price of latest debt and irreparable harm for grandiose tasks which can be wholly pointless. We encourage all Oklahomans to hitch us in lobbying for a radical audit of the OTA and a moratorium on all new turnpike development tasks.

Tassie Katherine Hirschfeld has a doctorate in anthropology and is a professor of anthropology on the University of Oklahoma. Amy Cerato, a licensed skilled engineer, holds a doctorate in geotechnical engineering and is a professor of civil engineering on the University of Oklahoma.