OTA awards $75 million contract for new Newcastle-area interchange on Toby Keith Expressway

The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority Board awarded a $75.4 million contract Tuesday to build a new interchange connecting I-44, the Toby Keith Expressway and SH-37 near Newcastle, part of a push to complete the new turnpike’s alignment between I-44 and I-35.

The meeting opened with a moment of silence for two transportation workers who have been lost since June. The Board, in its first meeting under new Chairman Will Berry, also finalized a new one-year law enforcement agreement with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and awarded a second construction contract for bridge work in Pawnee County.

New interchange contract advances Toby Keith Expressway

OTA Director of Engineering Darian Butler presented both winning bids to the Board. A joint venture between Allen and Shell won the $75.4 million contract for the interchange, coming in about 1.6 percent below the engineer’s estimate after four companies bid on the project. The work includes new bridges and ramps connecting I-44, 24th Street and SH-37, along with service roads and mainline construction. It’s the sixth contract awarded so far on the roughly 13-project push to complete the Toby Keith Expressway between I-35 and I-44.

In a separate award brought to the Board by Butler, a nearly $2.85 million contract went to Paradigm Construction — about 13.8 percent below the engineer’s estimate — to rehabilitate a US-412/Cimarron Turnpike bridge over an unnamed creek in Pawnee County, replacing the concrete deck, parapets, beams and bearing assemblies.

OTA remembers two transportation workers lost in June

Dustin Underwood, 26, a member of OTA’s Will Rogers Turnpike maintenance crew who had been with the Authority only a few months, died June 19 in a non-work-related accident. On June 30, Oklahoma Department of Transportation maintenance worker Ernesto Vasquez, part of a mowing and weed-eating crew, was struck by a vehicle and killed in the line of duty while working along a highway in Jackson County.

“These losses are tragic, and they ripple across the communities, through the families, the friends, and of course through both the Turnpike Authority and the Department of Transportation: OTA Executive Director Joe Echelle said, urging drivers to move over and slow down in work zones.

New agreement with Oklahoma Highway Patrol modernizes decades-old contract

“Oklahoma law provides that the enforcement of the traffic laws and the general laws on the turnpike system are under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Department of Public Safety,” OTA legal counsel Eric Lair told the Board, explaining why the cost of patrolling the system falls to OTA. The Board authorized Director Echelle to negotiate and sign a new one-year agreement with the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety that modernizes a long-term contract and follows a March state auditor recommendation that OTA update it.

“The existing agreement really got down into the nuts and bolts and was extremely hard to track,” Echelle said. “What we’ve turned it into now is something that’s much more modern.” OTA’s roughly $25.6 million in annual payments go toward covering trooper salaries, benefits and patrol vehicles.

Trooper honored for stopping wrong-way driver on Creek Turnpike

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Maj. Jeremy Allread presented the Trooper of the Month award to Troop B Trooper Travis Sykes for stopping a wrong-way driver on the Creek Turnpike on May 3. Sykes does not regularly patrol the turnpike system but was the closest unit when the call came in and responded immediately. He used a rolling roadblock to shield eastbound Creek Turnpike traffic before safely maneuvering the vehicle traveling the wrong way off the roadway, then turned his attention to getting the driver medical care. Allread credited the quick action with likely preventing serious injury or worse given the turnpike’s heavy traffic that night.

Pavement award recognizes John Kilpatrick Turnpike widening

The American Concrete Pavement Association’s Oklahoma chapter presented OTA with a pavement excellence award for widening the I-344/John Kilpatrick Turnpike from I-35 to Eastern Avenue. The nearly 30-year-old concrete turnpike had already outlived its original design life; rather than reconstruct it, OTA added lanes onto the existing pavement.

“I think we have got some of the best constructed pavements in the country, and these awards show that,” said Brent Burwell, the association’s Oklahoma chapter president. Freese and Nichols served as resident engineer, Hudson Prince as design engineer, and C3 Construction as the contractor.

Quick repairs follow erosion damage on Tulsa ramp

The Board ratified an emergency declaration Director Echelle made June 5 after erosion undermined a sidewalk and damaged a drainage pipe at the Creek Turnpike’s westbound SH-64 on-ramp near Yale Avenue in Tulsa.

OTA crews were on scene within hours, the city shifted traffic away from the compromised lane, and a contractor had repairs finished in three to four days. “It just shows the partnership and relationships that we have with the cities that we serve,” Echelle said. Motorists who spot damage or unusual conditions on the turnpike system are encouraged to report issues through the OTA website.

Virtual public meeting set for planned new interchange

A virtual public meeting on a planned Toby Keith Expressway interchange with I-40 and the Kickapoo Turnpike will run July 21 through Aug. 21. Echelle said this input period looks a little different than past ones: because OTA already purchased right-of-way for the interchange’s ultimate configuration when the Kickapoo Turnpike was built, the design questions are narrower than at newer interchanges like those on I-44 and I-35. Still, he said OTA wants to make sure the public knows the meeting is coming and has a chance to weigh in with input on how the interchange might impact local traffic patterns. Details will be at www.accessoklahoma.com starting July 21, and questions may be directed to the ACCESS Oklahoma hotline at 1-844-56-ACCESS or info@accessoklahoma.com.

Record traffic prompts summer safety, PIKEPASS reminders

Traffic on the system keeps climbing — Echelle said most days now set a new high for that date compared with a year ago — and he tied that growth back to a basic fact about how Oklahoma’s turnpikes operate: They’re funded entirely by the people who drive them, not by tax dollars. That makes small things add up. Signing up for PIKEPASS remains the cheapest way to pay tolls in Oklahoma, since it costs OTA far less to collect than a mailed PlatePay invoice. Echelle encouraged motorists to buckle up, sign up for PIKEPASS, keep vehicle and contact information on PIKEPASS accounts current, and check real-time travel conditions at www.oktraffic.org or through the Drive Oklahoma mobile app before hitting the road through the height of the summer travel season.

The Board’s next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at 10 a.m.