Reconstruction of crumbling shoulders and old guardrails on the H.E. Bai ley Turnpike is progressing well.
Haskell Lemon Group was the lowest of f ive bidders for a contract to rebuild shoulders and replace guardrails along a 16-mile section of the turnpike north of Fletcher and Elgin and just south of Chickasha, between mile posts 62 and 78. The winning bid, $8.9 million, was “about 23.1% below the engineer’s estimate,” Oklahoma Turnpike Authority Engineering Director Darian Butler said.
Typically those highway shoulders are 10 to 12 f eet wide, said Chris Ross, a resident engineer with SRB civil engineering firm.
Approximately 25% of the asphalt used to construct the new shoulders has been recycled asphalt milled from the turnpike’s old shoulders, Ross said.
T.J. Campbell Construction was the lowest of five bidders for a contract to rebuild shoulders and replace guardrails on a 12.6-mile section of the Bailey toll road, between mile marker 89 north of Chickasha and mile post 101.6 s lightly north of the Norman spur.
That job also will include installation of mountable curb, new curb inlets and slotted inlet drains, plus removal of an inside lane curbed median from MP 79.5 to MP 80.3. The winning bid, $8.63 million, w as approximately 16.6% below the engineer’s estimate, Butler said.
Ross, of Norman, told Southwest Ledger that work is scheduled to start July 15.
The state Turnpike Authority awarded both contracts in April.
Average daily traffic volume last year in that a rea ranged from 14,360 vehicles at MP 58 to 25,177 at MP 88, to 23,164 just south of the Newcastle entrance/exit. The average daily traffic count last year at the In terstate 44 junction with U S-62 at Lawton was 21,928, and the ADT count at MP 10 f ive miles north of the Randlett/ Grandfield gate was 7,626, according to the OTA.