I-44/US-75 interchange improvements
An aerial view of the early stages of the I-44/US-75 construction project, which began in January 2021.
Improvements to the interchange of I-44 and US-75 are planned as five seperate work packages originally planned to be completed individually. Work package 1 was completed in late 2022. The department has received two grants that will accelerate the completion timeline:
- A $10 million federal Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity grant that U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced during a visit to Tulsa in August 2022. The RAISE Grant will fund related work to reconnect West 51st Street under US-75, including sidewalks.
- An $85 million Mega Grant in January 2023 to help fund projects related to improvements of the Interstate 44 and US-75 interchange.
With the help of these federal grants, Work Packages 2, 3 and 5 will be completed as one project, to let in fall 2024. This project will complete the interchange as a whole. Work Package 4, which will widen I-44 between the I-244 western split and Union Avenue, is currently unfunded but tentatively scheduled for letting in 2029 in ODOT's 8 Year Construction Work Plan.
The first round of improvements to the I-44/US-75 interchange in Tulsa was completed in November 2022.
This first $90 million project included:
- Widening and reconstructing all pavements on I-44 from four lanes to six between the west side of the Arkansas River bridge and Union Avenue.
- Replacing five bridges; one at Union Ave. over I-44, two US-75 bridges over I-44 and two US-75 bridges over Mooser Creek (located just south of I-44 junction).
- Replacing and slightly reconfiguring all four cloverleaf ramps at the interchange to match geometry of the new elevation of the US-75 bridges over I-44.
- Construction of some additional piers; these will be part of future work packages for the interchange.
Key background information:
- The I-44 West End between the I-244 western split and the Arkansas River in Tulsa is the oldest remaining section of interstate on the Oklahoma Department of Transportation system.
- Built in the early 1950s, this narrow corridor predates the creation of the interstate system.
- In 2018, ODOT was awarded a $45 million Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant towards improvements in the corridor.
- While the INFRA grant doesn’t address all needs in the corridor, it is a tremendous first step to address several functionally obsolete and at-risk bridges, and to widen the I-44 segment immediately west of the Arkansas River.
- Future work packages are still being developed, and specific right-of-way impacts are not yet identified for these later phases.
Traffic on westbound I-44 went down to one lane in June 2021 to allow crews to demolish the old southbound US-75 bridge.
