Lawton officials want design plans ready, to speed street projects

Lawton’s elected officials want design plans ready to go so construction can begin as soon as funding is identified for some of the city’s largest street projects.

Members of the City Council’s Streets and Bridges Committee made that point this week as they received updates on the status of street projects planned for Goodyear Boulevard in the west industrial park, Southwest 38th Street between West Lee and West Gore boulevards, West Lee Boulevard, and West Gore Boulevard between Southwest 67th and Southwest 82nd streets. Member interest also stretched to two bridge projects: the South 11th Street replacement and the Cache Road renovation.

Ward 4 Councilman George Gill, the committee’s chairman, said his goal is ensuring all design plans, right of way acquisition and utility relocations are done so projects can be let for bids “the day after” funding is identified.

“The minute the budget is funded, we’ll go out,” he said of street and bridge projects that city officials have identified as priorities in this fiscal year.

City Engineer Joe Painter said city officials should be hearing about the status of funding mechanisms with days. City Manager John Ratliff said the city has multiple options to fund the work, to include loans that can be secured by pledging revenues from the 2019 Capital Improvements Program (CIP). The City of Lawton traditionally funds its major projects that way, ensuring it has the entire project cost in hand when work begins, then paying off that debt via CIP revenues.

Painter said design plans are completed for all the street and bridge projects discussed Tuesday, including Southwest 38th Street.

Council members have said they want the mile between West Gore and West Lee boulevards done first, but city staff said construction can’t begin until the water main along the arterial is replaced. Completed design plans for road construction were submitted to the City of Lawton, design firm EST said. Painter said the waterline must be done first, and that work cannot begin until right of way is acquired, work that is under way now.

Gill was critical of the process, saying right of way acquisition should already be done, adding he was told it had been, before city staff corrected the statement.

“The most important thing is to have the project ready to go when funding is ready,” Gill said.

Work on West Gore Boulevard west of Southwest 67th Street will replace the last two-lane segment of the arterial, but construction has been delayed far longer than council members want, Gill said, adding that delay is giving the city a black eye. Gill and Painter both said relocation work by private utility companies has taken longer than it should have. Painter said relocations by AT&T have delayed the project by about two years, a problem the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) is having on road projects across the state.

Gill, who has a construction background, said construction costs have greatly increased in the time the project has been delayed, something supported by the lone bid that ODOT received for the project. That bid was $2.5 million higher than the $10 million engineering estimate, the reason ODOT — which already is splitting the construction cost with Lawton — is considering a proposal to split that $2.5 million cost on an 80/20 basis. Even with the split, the City of Lawton still must identify at least $400,000 more for its share of the project, which is being funded through the 2019 CIP.

Committee members also were assured that design plans are ready for the two sets of bridges that city and state officials have said are a priority because of their deterioration.

The proposal is to replace the South 11th Street bridges between Interstate 44 and the city landfill, while the bridges over Cache Road east of Northwest 47th Street will be renovated to repair damage. Both sets of bridges have been weight restricted, meaning city fire trucks and sanitation trucks cannot use them. Painter said the South 11th Street bridges will be the largest project and engineers are negotiating with two property owners for the right of way the project will need.