ODOT urging drivers to avoid I-235 work zone, construction causing major delays

Taylor Mitchell/KFOR
·2 min read

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Thousands of Oklahoma City metro drivers are dealing with daily headaches commuting to and from work along one of the city’s busiest interstates. The I-235 construction, just north of I-40, is causing heavy traffic delays and impacting the daily commute even more.

“It’s getting bad,” said Alex Montgomery, an Oklahoma driver.

With over 100,000 travelers a day, southbound I-235 was already one of the most heavily traveled areas in the Oklahoma City metro.

But now, the big Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) bridge rehabilitation project is only causing more congestion at the Dallas Junction to get even worse.

“We’ve been narrowing the lanes and trying to work on the bridge daily. This does have the lanes down to about two constantly. So, traffic is going to be narrowed… The worst times for this area seems to be rush hour, of course, in the mornings and again in the evenings and even over lunch time, it can back up… Traffic can back up in that area at peak travel times to 23rd, even to 36th sometimes,” said Mills Leslie, spokesperson for ODOT.

The back-ups are so bad, drivers who frequent this stretch are now re-routing.

“What I did today, because it was stormy, I kind of avoided it, took the back roads… I mean, every other day I drive out here, there’s always another wreck, and it’s just like, impossible to go anywhere,” said Montgomery.

I-44/Turner Turnpike overnight closures scheduled May 17, May 18

That’s exactly what ODOT officials ask you to do; take a different route to avoid traffic and possible accidents.

“Any sort of accident, fender bender, anything in the area is going to just back down traffic exponentially… We’re asking drivers to use I-35 as an alternate route or I-44 as an alternate route,” said Leslie.

But compared to bigger cities, one driver from Houston told News 4 she is impressed with how well traffic continues to flow.

“It’s great. I mean, it’s nothing like Houston. So, it was great not having to deal with all that traffic,” said Josie Diaz, traveling from Houston.

After working southbound, crews will shift to the northbound lanes.

You can keep up with construction on the Drive Oklahoma app. There you can actually see live ODOT cameras of the traffic in that area.

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