The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority will announce a revised South Extension Turnpike alignment at 2 p.m. Sept. 23. The announcement will be livestreamed to allow those impacted in Cleveland and McClain counties to hear the information directly from OTA at the same time. The public may find the livestream at the following locations online:
- OTA’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OKTurnpike
- OTA’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@OklahomaTurnpikeAuthority and
- https://video.ibm.com/channel/jsW2fC3uurE
Following the announcement, a map of the revised alignment will be available at https://www.accessoklahoma.com.
OTA will offer three Homeowner Open Houses on Sept. 24, Sept. 27 and Sept. 29 for those with property along the new alignment. The location of the meetings will be announced in a few days. OTA has communicated with a wide range of people in the area up to this point. However, OTA hopes to now put their focus on property owners who may be impacted as our priority. As engineering design progresses, property owners will be kept up to date about the parcels needed. The final design that will determine property acquisition is more than a year away, but OTA will continue to be available to those property owners to answer questions throughout the process. Those along the newly announced alignment are urged to attend one of the meetings to speak one-on-one with OTA right-of-way specialists and to learn about next steps in the process.
OTA South Extension Background Construction of the South Extension Turnpike is part of the OTA’s ACCESS Oklahoma long-range plan and is slated to open to traffic by 2034. The 19-mile new toll road will connect I-35 near Purcell to the future East-West Connector turnpike near Indian Hills Rd. at the Norman/Oklahoma City line. This route was validated by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2023 as legally authorized in state statute. The original alignment announced in 2022 must move to the west after the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said the turnpike project is not compatible with its federal fee title land uses near Lake Thunderbird.
This vital new transportation corridor will provide an alternate route for I-35 traffic from Southern Oklahoma heading to Eastern and Northeastern Oklahoma and regionally. It also will provide an additional South Canadian River crossing.
Property owners with questions may reach out to OTA at any time at 1-844-56ACCES(S) or info@accessoklahoma.com. Project updates will be on www.accessoklahoma.com as they become available.