A $73 million project to widen Interstate 40 near Harrah Road is expected to get underway this week, bringing years of construction to a stretch of eastern Oklahoma County that has watched its morning commute balloon into an hours-long slog. The work spans five miles of I-40 between Harrah Road and Newalla Road, and it will ultimately widen the interstate to six lanes while replacing two bridges along the corridor.
According to KOCO, crews will also rework I-40 interchanges in the area and widen portions of both Newalla Road and Harrah Road as part of the project. Oklahoma Department of Transportation Executive Director Tim Gatz said the area has significant congestion, adding that morning peak periods now last for hours rather than the short rush-hour windows drivers once expected. Gatz delivered that assessment to state transportation commissioners on September 8, according to OK Energy Today, briefing the nine-member commission just days before construction was set to begin.
ODOT expects the widening to take a few years to complete, and drivers are being told to prepare for traffic changes as crews move through the corridor. The project is meant to keep traffic flowing through a section of the interstate that has become one of the busier chokepoints in the metro area as suburban growth pushes east from Oklahoma City.
A Corridor Reshaped by a New Turnpike
Part of what’s driving the congestion is the Kickapoo Turnpike, the 19.6-mile toll road that opened between 2020 and 2021 and was designated Interstate 335 in November 2024, per Wikipedia’s entry on the roadway. That turnpike created a direct arterial link between I-40 near Harrah and I-44 in Luther, near the stretch of I-40 now being widened…