table style="width: 550px;" border="0"> Two major highway projects affecting area motorists were announced Friday morning by the Oklahoma Highway Department (ODOT) director and division engineer.
Speaking at the monthly Chamber of Commerce Legislative Forum, division engineer Darrin Saliba said one project would entail replacing the bridges on US 75 south of Okmulgee and the other would handle bridge repairs on Interstate 40. By far, the biggest project is replacement of the bridges along the nearly three-mile stretch of US 75 through the Deep Fork River bottom area.
Bid opening is going to be July, 2015 with an estimated $22 million price tag. Work is expected to take over 500 calendar days according to ODOT estimates.
Both north and south bound traffic will be affected with some one-lane routing planned throughout the work.  The Interstate 40 work will be bid out first with a May, 2015 bid opening date. The cost on that project is expected to reach $14.3 million and take just under a year to complete.
Traffic is expected to be diverted to one lane each way along the interstate during the project.
In addition to the bridge work on I-40, cable barriers will also be installed. "The majority of the I-40 work will be rehab," Saliba said. He said an abandoned railroad bridge is, "one of the signature aspects." He explained that railroad runs under the interstate as well as US 75 near Anchor Glass.
Saliba said he has been working with Henryetta city manager Ted Graham and chamber executive director Roy Madden on that part of the project.
"The existing asphalt connector at the decoy faculty is defective." One of the things ODOT is looking at is building a new connector.
That would also entail moving the bridge by Anchor Glass and, since there is an I-40 bridge across the same abandoned railroad, that would be removed as well.
Saliba did not go into detail how the engineering would be replacing those structures.