City of Lawton ready to launch four new improvement projects

A funding resolution approved by the City Council will allow Lawton city staff to proceed with plans to launch $30 million in capital improvement projects.

Two of the projects are ready to go as soon as funding is available, City Engineer Joe Painter said.

City Finance Director Joe Don Dunham said council approval of the resolution signals the city’s intent to seek multiple loans for four projects that were set in the city’s 2019 Capital Improvements Program.

“They’re identified in our current fiscal year budget,” Dunham said of the two arterial upgrades, a landfill project and work to renovate McMahon Auditorium, adding that council approval of that indebtedness was a necessary step before the projects can be launched.

Painter said design plans for McMahon Auditorium and the landfill cells are completely done, meaning city staff is ready to solicit bids as soon as money is available.

“The landfill is 100 percent,” Painter said of design plans for a long-discussed project that will add two new areas for trash disposal, a project that has been estimated at $7.5 million by city staff.

The work at McMahon Auditorium will complement work already launched on that 1954-era complex, such as updates to its HVAC system. Council members have said it is crucial to upgrade and modernize the auditorium, which supports activities ranging from plays by Lawton Community Theatre to graduation ceremonies. Painter said bidding the project will mean selecting a construction manager at risk, meaning a construction firm that will take control of the project and oversee the subcontractors who will do different tasks (the same technique used for the Lawton City Hall renovation project now under way).

City officials have said Phase I renovations will include renovating 13,500 square feet of space in the auditorium and lobby, along with adding 4,800 square feet of new space on the lobby’s east side; adding an elevator to the balcony area; and modernizing two women’s restrooms and adding a unisex bathroom. Current estimated cost is $8 million.

The two arterial projects are nearing design completion.

Painter said designs are essentially done for Goodyear Boulevard, which will be rebuilt between Cache Road and West Lee Boulevard. The project, estimated at $9.2 million by city engineers, will upgrde the west industrial park’s major arterial, one that serves the existing industrial park as well as two recently-acquired tracts to the north. City staff said the road also will tie into plans being discussed by the City of Lawton and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) to create a north industrial bypass, extending Goodyear Boulevard north of Cache Road to tie into Rogers Lane/U.S. 62.

Painter said ODOT is waiting for the City of Lawton to deposit its share of a second arterial upgrade: rebuilding West Gore Boulevard between Southwest 67th and Southwest 82nd streets. Utility relocation along that 1-mile stretch has been under way for more than a year, with those relocations nearing completion. The CIP allocates $5.3 million toward that project in the CIP; the total cost was estimated at $8.988 million in Fall 2021.

“We’ll provide the funding in January,” Painter said, of the plan that specifies ODOT will provide up to $5.971 million of the project’s construction cost, with the City of Lawton covering the remaining construction cost, as well as completely covering design plans, right of way acquisition and utility relocation.

Painter said while the city staff doesn’t yet have completion dates for the four projects, all will begin in the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2024.