Citizens concerned about overpass

By Carol Cole-Frowe
The Norman Transcript

August 05, 2008 12:07 am

— School bus routes and floodplains were some of the concerns expressed about the upcoming construction of the Rock Creek Road overpass bridge over Interstate 35, which will connect 24th Avenue NW and 36th Avenue NW.
The public meeting lasted about an hour Monday evening in council chambers at City Hall, with a couple of dozen citizens attending.
Public Works Director Shawn O’Leary said the project is being fast-tracked by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to work it in with the upcoming Interstate-35 six-lane widening project, which will save the City of Norman about $1 million in traffic control during construction with less inconvenience to neighboring properties.
“What’s happening on this project and time frame is quite remarkable,” he said.
O’Leary started out telling the attendees what they didn’t plan to discuss, which would include several controversial projects in the area like the one-way vs. two-way frontage roads, the University North Park Tax Increment Financing District, the Trails and Paths Master Plan or ODOT’s I-35 six-lane widening project almost finalized at this time. The I-35 project is scheduled to begin construction in early 2009.
“We really want to focus on the Rock Creek overpass bridge,” O’Leary said.
He said the proposed Rock Creek overpass started years ago with an unsuccessful request from the City of Norman to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation for a bridge or interchange at Rock Creek Road and I-35.
Last year when the subject came up again, ODOT offered a $4 million grant if the City could come up with funds to build the rest of the bridge. That came in the form of about $1 million in federal funds administered through the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments or ACOG and $7.75 million from the UNP TIF project, after hotelier John Q. Hammons decided he’d rather have an overpass than the City buy the new conference center.
The Rock Creek project has been fast-tracked ever since Hammons made his offer to the City in a letter to Mayor Cindy Rosenthal in February.
“There never is going to be an opportunity to build that bridge cheaper,” O’Leary said.
Marty Hepp, president of Cobb Engineering, gave details of the project, which is planned to be a 40 mph, four-lane curb-and-gutter road, with 10-feet multi-modal pedestrian and bicycling corridors on each side. A positive concrete barrier will separate traffic and pedestrians. Cobb is handling design engineering for the overpass.
Hepp said traffic analysis said the Rock Creek bridge should handle about 20 percent of the traffic for the area, helping relieve somewhat the Robinson Street and Tecumseh Road interchanges.
“Those interchanges are being overloaded,” Hepp said.
He said the reason for not making Rock Creek an interchange is because it is too close to Robinson and Tecumseh and would affect the merging area, plus would have a greater effect on adjacent neighborhoods.
“When you get interchanges too close ... there’s not very much distance and it’s unsafe to merge,” Hepp said.
He said they are looking for impacts on the area residences and businesses, like land use, noise, farmland, wetlands and floodplain impacts. Some other considerations are archeological, hazardous waste or underground storage sites. The environmental process will have to be approved by the Federal Highway Administration.
The overpass will be offset 160 feet to the north to avoid nearby residences. Noise abatements for the neighborhood are being considered.
It would be built in two phases and integrated with the I-35 project.
“It will appear as a seamless project,” Hepp said.
Stacy Hooper asked about school bus routes and explained why buses may have trouble negotiating around the construction.
Hepp said those are exactly the kinds of issues they have the public meetings to discuss and they’d look into places for the school buses to be able to turn around.
Another attendee asked about floodplain measures, with the residences recently receiving letters about the changes in the floodplain mapping.
O’Leary said the project will be required to get a floodplain permit, just as any other project would, and the design of the overpass will have to be compatible with the City’s new stringent floodplain ordinance.
He said the project will need to have compensatory storage for flood waters displaced because of the fill around the overpass.
Norman Economic Development Coalition Director Don Wood asked about Texas turnarounds or slip ramps.
Wood was told those design elements are on hold until the overdue one-way vs. two-way frontage road study is completed.
“The good news is the City of Norman is in partnership with ODOT on the study,” O’Leary said. “What you’re seeing here is the traditional two-way frontage road.”
O’Leary said the presentation will be on the City of Norman’s Web site today at www.NormanOK.gov.