City wants to add two new bridges to its work list

After a lot of focus on streets, City of Lawton officials are ready to look at bridges.

Members of the City Council’s Streets and Bridges Committee have made recommendations that will affect two bridges in south Lawton: removing one near Mattie Beal Park while making plans to add one at South Sheridan Road and Southwest D Avenue to the repair list.

The closure will affect a deteriorating bridge in the alley between Southwest I and Southwest J avenues, Southwest 8th and Southwest 9th streets. That bridge — located just east of Mattie Beal Park — will be demolished and removed, Public Works Director Michael Watrous said, although Ward 4 Councilman George Gill suggested Public Works might want to consider replacing it with a pedestrian walkway.

Watrous said it makes sense to remove the bridge, explaining the deteriorating structure will be “one less bridge to block drainage.”

“It does restrict water flow,” he said, of a structure that holds water in an area of Lawton that already experiences flooding problems because of the creek winding through.

Cliff Haggenmiller, deputy director of Public Works, said the demolition would be done by city crews.

While that deteriorating structure will be removed, the committee agreed with a staff recommendation to seek a Bridge Investment Fund planning grant for a Sheridan Road bridge that crosses Numu Creek at the Bridges Park, located at South Sheridan Road and Southwest D Avenue. Watrous said city staff is suggesting that bridge be replaced “in a few years,” using funding that could come from a federal grant.

But, design plans are needed, the point of the Bridge Investment Fund grant recommended by committee members. Lawton will apply for another grant to help pay for construction, Watrous said.

While action assessed two new bridges, that’s not to say that bridges haven’t been a priority for elected officials and city staff.

Ask anyone who has tried to drive in the westbound lanes of Cache Road between Northwest 38th Street and Northwest 47th Street, where three traffic lanes narrow because of repairs being done on one of the two bridges crossing Wolf Creek near Oak Avenue. Work has been under way for the westbound bridge for weeks; contractor K&R Builders will move to the eastbound bridge after the westbound structure is done.

The work includes repairs to expansion joints and construction joints, replacement of bearing assemblies, riprap, and removal of lead-based paint, then repainting.

City officials also are nearing a start date for a project to rebuild two bridges that cross Wolf Creek on South 11th Street, between the I-44 ramps and the city landfill. That construction project is expected to be let in June, and utility line relocation work has begun.

Both sets of Wolf Creek bridges are important — council members call them priorities — because they are weight-limited, meaning vehicles over a certain weight can’t use them. For Cache Road, that means fire apparatus can’t cross those bridges, while city trash trucks going to the city landfill must use new routes because they aren’t allowed to cross the South 11th Street bridges.