Traffic Talk: New Crosstown Expressway in Oklahoma City open to motorists — and questions

Don Gammill: The inquiries about travel on the new Crosstown Expressway in Oklahoma City are going to come for some time, and the state Transportation Department knows there will be comments, both pro and con.

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Published: January 23, 2012

It's new, so expect questions about the Crosstown Expressway. First chance you get, take a ride on it, then see what comes to mind.

The inquiries, such as the following, are going to come for some time and the state Transportation Department knows there will be comments, both pro and con.

You don't know if you like it until you experience it, however.

Traveling east entering the new stretch of highway that is the new Crosstown Expressway, before the Penn exit, there is an unfinished exit on the right to a highway that soars up and over the Crosstown and curves north. What will it connect to?

Tom, Oklahoma City

That's on the west end of the project. The transportation department's Brenda Perry has the answer for Tom.

“As you travel eastbound, there's a partially built ramp and it will eventually be a connection to the new downtown roadway — commonly referred to by Oklahoma City as the ‘boulevard.'”

The “boulevard” she refers to, Tom, is a new six-lane roadway that will be closer to the current Interstate 40 stretch downtown. The original I-40 portion called Crosstown will be taken down, with some beams from the elevated bridge road used in new county bridge construction throughout the state — maybe up to 300 in all.

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