ACCESS Oklahoma turnpike plans back in motion after pausing due to open meetings violation

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s controversial $5 billion project to build several new turnpikes and remove hundreds of homes throughout the state is back on after the Authority’s board took a unanimous vote Tuesday.

The vote came a little over a month after a judge ruled the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) “willfully violated” the Oklahoma Open Meetings Act and ordered the $5 billion ACCESS Oklahoma plan be put on hold, and all contracts issued for projects be considered null and void.

But Tuesday’s vote by the OTA board means the plans to build several turnpikes, including yet-another portion of Tulsa’s planned Gilcrease Expressway, are back on.

The ACCESS Oklahoma plan would build several new turnpikes in the state, including three that would be built near Oklahoma City, Moore and Norman, removing hundreds of homes through eminent domain.

It also would build the final, northwest leg of the Gilcrease Expressway between LL Tisdale Parkway and US-412 as a turnpike.

FOX23 has extensively covered the controversy surrounding the newly built southwest leg of the Gilcrease Expressway, which opened as a turnpike between 51st Street and US-412 in November 2022.

FOX23 reported a one-mile portion of the southwest leg between 51st Street and 41st Street had already been open as a free-to-use, taxpayer-funded road for decades. But as of November, drivers now have to pay a toll to drive that once-free stretch.

FOX23 was present when the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority board approved the toll rates for the Gilcrease Expressway, which are the highest of any Turnpike in OTA’s system.

The Gilcrease Expressway has been planned as an outer loop freeway around Tulsa since voters approved it in the 1950s. Since then, portions of the expressway between the LL Tisdale parkway and I-244 have been fully constructed as a four lane, free-to-use, limited-access freeway.

In recent years, a two-lane stretch of the expressway has been completed and opened to traffic between LL Tisdale Parkway and 41st W Ave. The section was taxpayer-funded and is free to drive on.

As of January 2023, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority had not stated if that existing stretch will remain free to drive on, or if it will become tolled like the existing stretch between 51st and 41st on the southwest leg did, once the ACCESS project is completed.

During the planning stages for ACCESS Oklahoma, the OTA never mentioned its specific plans in any of its public meeting agendas before announcing the projects were set in stone last spring.

Residents near the planned turnpikes banded together and formed the group ‘Pike Off OTA.’ They sued the Turnpike Authority, and last month a judge in Cleveland County ruled OTA “willfully violated” Oklahoma’s Open Meetings Act when it did not put ACCESS Oklahoma planning items on meeting agendas.

The judge ordered any contracts awarded for ACCESS projects thus far be considered null and void. The judge also ordered all work on ACCESS projects to halt until the project could be approved in accordance with the Oklahoma Open Meetings Act.

At Tuesday’s meeting, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority board took a new vote on the ACCESS plan, this time putting it on the meeting agenda, unanimously approving it to continue working where it left off.

The plaintiffs from Pike Off who are suing OTA tell FOX23 their fight is not over.

“They love building roads like highway engineers love to do. I respect that, but you really need an adult in the room asking the question, is this necessary,” Pike Off Plaintiff Tassie Hirschfeld said. “Our legal team is not bored or tired. They’re not resting.”

Their fight now continues in the chambers of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which is currently reviewing the ACCESS Oklahoma plan and could make a ruling as to whether or not the plan is legal to carry forward in the next few weeks.

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