Interstate 35 in Oklahoma

Interstate 35
Route information
Maintained by ODOT
Length: 235.96 mi[1] (379.74 km)
Major junctions
South end: I-35 at the Texas State Line
  I-240 in Oklahoma City
I-235 in Oklahoma City
I-40in Oklahoma City
I-44 in Oklahoma City
US-412(Cimarron Turnpike) at I-35 (Eastbound toward Tulsa)
US-412 / US-64 at I-35 (Westbound toward Enid)
North end: I-35 / KTA at the Kansas State Line
Highway system

Main route of the Interstate Highway System
Main • Auxiliary • Business

Oklahoma State Highways
Oklahoma turnpike system

← SH-34 SH-35 →

Oklahoma is the second state that Interstate 35 (I-35) passes through from south to north. In Oklahoma, I-35 runs from the Red River at the Texas border to the Kansas line near Braman, for a length of 236 miles[1] (372 km). I-35 has one spur route in the state, Interstate 235 in the inner city of Oklahoma City.

Contents

Route description

Interstate 35 enters Oklahoma with U.S. Highway 77 on a bridge over the Red River in Love County, south of Thackerville. US-77 splits off at Exit 1, but parallels the interstate for its entire length in Oklahoma.[2] I-35 maintains a near-due north–south course through Love and Carter Cos. I-35 provides four exits to Ardmore. After leaving Ardmore, it has a brief concurrency with State Highway 53 and enters Murray County and the Arbuckle Mountains.[2] I-35 then passes through Garvin County and the county seat of Pauls Valley. North of exit 79, I-35 enters McClain County.[2] There, it passes through Purcell and Goldsby.

State Highway 9 joins the interstate crossing over the South Canadian River into Cleveland County, after which it splits off again. It then serves as a major urban interstate in Norman and Moore. Between Norman and Moore, US-77 joins the interstate again. It then enters Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County near milepost 120.[2] Near downtown, I-35 splits off the mainline (which becomes Interstate 235/US-77) and runs concurrent with Interstate 40 for a mile before splitting off to the north again.[2] Interstate 44 then joins I-35 between mileposts 133 and 137.[2] In Edmond US-77 joins the interstate yet again.

At milepost 146, I-35 enters Logan County. It serves Guthrie at Exit 153, where US-77 splits off, and at Exit 157.[2] The interstate then crosses the Cimarron River into Payne County and enters Noble County shortly thereafter. It provides two exits to Perry and serves as the western terminus of the Cimarron Turnpike. After providing access to Tonkawa and Blackwell in Kay County, it crosses into Kansas, becoming the Kansas Turnpike.

History

Some sections of I-35 in Oklahoma City were already built in 1953, before the Interstate system was created.[3] Following the passage of the Federal Highway Act of 1956 that created the Interstate Highway System, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation approved the location of the future interstate north of Oklahoma City to the Kansas state line on a route previously surveyed by the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority for a proposed toll road. As a free road, the first five miles (8 km) of that section of I-35 were opened to traffic in 1958 from US-177 near Braman north to the Kansas border where it continued as the Kansas Turnpike. This was followed by completion of the entire route from Oklahoma City northward to Braman by 1963 in several phases including Edmond to Guthrie in 1960, Guthrie to Perry in 1961, Perry to Blackwell in 1962 and Blackwell to Braman in early 1963.

To the south of Oklahoma City, I-35 was completed through Norman, Oklahoma south to Purcell, Oklahoma in June 1959. In Moore, it opened in two parts: the northern half, connecting Moore to Oklahoma City, opened in January 1960. The southern half, linking it to Norman, was opened to traffic in June 1967.[4] The Moore–Norman segment was originally a four-lane section of US-77 built in 1951 that did not meet full Interstate Highway standards and included several at-grade intersections within the City of Moore including some with traffic signals and upgraded accordingly to include grade separations to bring up to full Interstate Highway standards and frontage roads to serve local traffic needs. Also not up to full Interstate Highway standards prior to 1967 was a section in the vicinity of Lindsey Street in the southern portion of Norman where another at-grade intersection still existed which dated back to the original highway's construction in the early 1950s—this was also brought up to full Interstate Highway standards in 1967 with the construction of interchanges on I-35 at Lindsey and a short distance to the south for the future SH-9 bypass that would be built around the south side of Norman in the early 1970s.

Further south, I-35 was completed from Marietta south to the Red River bridge in 1963, at which point a nearly 90-mile (140 km) gap of uncompleted interstate would exist between Purcell and Marietta until the late 1960s with traffic continuing to be routed over paralleling US-77. This was in large part due to efforts of the towns of Wynnewood, Paoli, and Wayne, fighting to keep I-35 as close as possible to US-77. This was successful due to a threat from Governor Henry Bellmon to build a toll road rather than I-35, and legislation preventing state funds for the interstate from being spent if it were more than 1-mile (1.6 km) from the U.S. route.[5]

The uncompleted gap of I-35 in Southern Oklahoma was narrowed in 1967 and 1968 when two sections were completed from US-70/SH-199 in Ardmore south to SH-32 in Marietta. In 1969, the section of interstate bypassing Ardmore was completed north from US-70 two miles (3 km) to SH-142 and the following year, 1970, brought the completion of I-35 from SH-7 near Davis south to Ardmore, at long last bypassing the winding section of US-77 through the Arbuckle Mountains. This stretch through the Arbuckles was particularly expensive and difficult to construct, taking almost two years and requiring the blasting and removal of 4 million cubic yards of rock.[6] A few months later in January, 1971, I-35 was finally completed across the state of Oklahoma, when the remaining portions of the interstate from Purcell to SH-7 near Davis were opened to traffic.[3]

Future

ODOT has announced plans to widen 2 miles (3.2 km) of Interstate 35 through Norman, from the McCall Bridge over the Canadian River to the Main Street interchange (Exit 109). Controversy surrounding the project arose when early drafts eliminated the SH-74A/Lindsey Street interchange (Exit 108B), due to its proximity to the SH-9 interchange (Exit 108A). A public meeting held in Norman attracted 300 attendees, many bearing "Don't Close Lindsey" signs. Attendees cited the impact on local businesses and those attending University of Oklahoma football games as grounds for opposing the closure of the interchange. A former OU economics professor estimated the interchange's closure would cost Norman $100 million over the course of fifteen years.[7]

At the meeting, four proposals were displayed, only one of which displayed no access from Lindsey Street. A second proposal would preserve access to Lindsey Street but require the seizure of a newly-built Chevrolet dealership near the interchange. The third proposal would instead send the ramps around the dealership, and the fourth, the highest-cost alternate, would use bridges to prevent Lindsey Street and SH-9 traffic from conflicting. ODOT said their design standards did not require consideration of OU football traffic, because they only considered the 30th highest traffic percentile. One ODOT engineer was quoted as saying, "Otherwise, we'd have to 10-lane everything in Norman."[7]

Naming

Exit list

County Location # Destinations Notes
I-35/US-77 enter Texas
Love 1 US-77 north North end of US-77 overlap
5 SH-153 – Thackerville
15 SH-32 – Marietta, Ryan
21 Oswalt Road
Carter 24 SH-77S – Lake Murray State Park
Ardmore 29 US-70 east – Madill, Ardmore South end of US-70 overlap
31 SH-199 east / US-70 west – Ardmore, Waurika, Lone Grove North end of US-70 overlap; signed as exits 31A (east) and 31B (west)
32 12th Street
33 SH-142 – Ardmore
40 SH-53 east – Springer, Gene Autry South end of SH-53 overlap
42 SH-53 west – Comanche North end of SH-53 overlap
Murray 47 US-77 – Turner Falls Area
51 US-77 – Turner Falls Area
55 SH-7 – Davis, Duncan, Sulphur
Garvin 60 Ruppe Road
64 SH-17A east – Wynnewood
66 SH-29 – Wynnewood, Elmore City
70 Airport Road
Pauls Valley 72 SH-19 – Pauls Valley, Maysville
74 Kimberlin Road
79 SH-145 east – Paoli
McClain 86 SH-59 – Wayne, Payne
Purcell 91 SH-74 to SH-39 – Purcell, Lexington
95 To US-77 – Purcell, Lexington
98 Johnson Road
Goldsby 101 Ladd Road
104 SH-74 south – Goldsby, Washington
106 SH-9 west – Chickasha South end of SH-9 overlap
Cleveland Norman 108 SH-9 east / Lindsey Steet – Tecumseh North end of SH-9 overlap; signed as exits 108A (SH-9) and 108B (Lindsey Street) southbound
109 Main Street
110 Robinson Street Signed as exits 110A (west) and 110B (east) southbound
112 Tecumseh Road
113 US-77 south – Norman Southbound exit and northbound entrance
Moore 114 Indian Hill Road
116 Southwest 19th Street
117 SH-37 (Southwest 4th Street) / Main Street, Northwest 5th Street
118 Northwest 12th Street, Main Street, Northwest 5th Street
119A Shields Boulevard Northbound exit and southbound entrance
119B Northwest 27th Street
Oklahoma City 120 Southeast 89th Street
Oklahoma 121A Southeast 82nd Street Southbound exit and northbound entrance
121B I-240 / US-62 west / SH-3 to I-40 – Lawton, Fort Smith South end of US-62 overlap
122A Southeast 66th Street No northbound entrance
122B Southeast 59th Street
123A Southeast 51st Street No northbound entrance
123B Southeast 44th Street No southbound entrance
124A Southeast Grand Boulevard
124B Southeast 29th Street, Southeast 25th Street Signed as exit 125A southbound
125B Southeast 15th Street Signed as exit 125D southbound
126 I-235 north (US-77 north) / I-40 west (US-270 west) – Edmond, State Capitol, Amarillo, Oklahoma Health Center South end of I-40/US-270 overlap; north end of US-77 overlap
127 Eastern Avenue, M.L. King Avenue Southbound exit is via exit 128
128 I-40 east / US-270 east - Ft. Smith North end of I-40/US-270 overlap
129 Northeast 10th Street
130 US-62 east (Northeast 23rd Street) North end of US-62 overlap
131 Northeast 36th Street
132A Northeast 50th Street
132B Northeast 63rd Street Northbound exit and southbound entrance
133 I-44 west / SH-66 west – Lawton, Amarillo South end of I-44/SH-66 overlap
134 Wilshire Boulevard
135 Britton Road
136 Hefner Road
137 Northeast 122nd Street
138A I-44 east (Turner Turnpike) – Tulsa North end of I-44 overlap
138B Kilpatrick Turnpike west
138C Sooner Road Southbound exit and northbound entrance
Edmond 138D Memorial Road
139 Southeast 33rd Street
140 Southeast 15th Street
141 US-77 south / SH-66 east (2nd Street) – Edmond, Tulsa North end of SH-66 overlap; south end of US-77 overlap
142 Danforth Road
143 Covell Road
146 Waterloo Road
Logan 151 Seward Road
153 US-77 north – Guthrie North end of US-77 overlap
157 SH-33 – Guthrie, Perkins, Cushing
Payne 170 Mulhall Road
174 SH-51 – Stillwater, Hennessey
Noble 180 Orlando Road
Perry 185 US-77 – Perry, Covington
186 US-64 east (Fir Street) – Perry South end of US-64 overlap
193 Airport Road Northbound exit and southbound entrance
194 US-64 west (Cimarron Turnpike) / US-412 – Tulsa, Enid North end of US-64 overlap; signed as exits 194A (east) and 194B (west)
203 SH-15 – Billings, Marland
Kay 211 Fountain Road
214 US-60 – Tonkawa, Ponca City
218 Hubbard Road
222 SH-11 – Blackwell, Medford
230 Braman Road
231 US-177 – Braman
I-35 enters Kansas, Kansas Turnpike begins

References

  1. ^ a b Stuve, Eric. Interstate Highways. OKHighways. 27 February 2007.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Oklahoma Department of Transportation. Official State Map (Map) (2009–10 ed.). http://www.odot.org/hqdiv/p-r-div/maps/state-maps/2009state/pdfs/state-map.pdf. Retrieved 2010-07-05. 
  3. ^ a b Cockerell, Penny. "50 Years: As the intersection of Interstates 35, 40, and 44, Oklahoma is at America's crossroads." The Daily Oklahoman 29 June 2006: 2A.
  4. ^ Medley, Robert. "Higways[sic] continue to drive economy." The Daily Oklahoman 29 June 2006: 1D.
  5. ^ McNichol, Dan. The Roads that Built America: The Incredible Story of the U.S. Interstate System. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2006. ISBN 1-4027-3468-9
  6. ^ Farmer, Ann. "Old Mountain Area Becomes A New Discovery" The Nevada (Mo.) Sunday Herald (republished for the AP by The Greenville (Tex.) Herald Banner) 9 June 1972: 12.
  7. ^ a b Cole-Frowe, Carol. "Fired up: Residents fight for Lindsey Street interchange." The Norman Transcript 19 September 2008: A1.
Interstate 35
Previous state:
Texas		 Oklahoma Next state:
Kansas