Industrial park bypass project questioned, lauded by residents it will affect

Linda and Bob Hadden aren’t fans of the plan to create an industrial bypass in west Lawton.

Larry Neal is, saying his family has known for years that improvement was inevitable.

The three were among the residents who met with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) last week for a briefing on long-awaited plans that would create a bypass for Lawton’s west industrial park by extending Goodyear Boulevard about a mile to the north to link into U.S. 62. Neal and the Haddens are more invested than the average resident: they will lose property to the project, land either needed for the road and ramps associated with the project, or easements alongside them.

Linda Hadden said she and her husband will lose 7.5 acres of land, property along the north side of U.S. 62 where ramps will be built to give access to a bridge that will span the highway and a wide easement with fencing will separate the highway/ramps from private property.

“I like my land,” Hadden said, of property that has been in the family since 1980.

While it’s a small piece of the land out of all the land that the Haddens own along U.S. 62, Bob Hadden said his son had plans for five acres located near a pond in that area, property that is within the area ODOT needs: he wants to build a home there.

“We had house plans built up,” he said.

Neal doesn’t yet know how much of his property ODOT will need when it builds a new two-lane road to extend what now dead-ends at Cache Road. Neal’s property stretches along the east side of that soon-to-be road and while he doesn’t know exactly how many acres he will be ceding from land that has been in the family since 1951, he’s in favor of the project. In fact, he and his family have known for decades it was coming.

Neal’s father was J.T. Neal, who was involved in the development efforts that led to the Goodyear plant in the 1970s. Neal said his father told him then there would come a time when Goodyear Boulevard would be extended north to link directly into U.S. 62.

“He dreamed of it,” Neal said, adding neither he nor his late father dreamed it would take this long to realize what he calls an important project to encourage economic development in west Lawton.

That general area was identified for industrial development decades ago, and Neal said that is why he is in favor of the bypass project.

City of Lawton officials have long discussed the idea and have been actively exploring options for more than four years. In Spring 2021, they identified the preferred option that they, ODOT and design engineers EST (now WSB) said would provide the most effective and safest route to take industrial park traffic north to link into U.S. 62. That option had to take multiple factors into account, including highway speed traffic on U.S. 62 that already must cope with eastbound drivers slowing to exit onto the ramp that takes them to the U.S. 62/Rogers Lane bypass around Lawton.

Caleb Austin, WSB’s vice president for transportation in the Oklahoma City office, said the selected option is the best and safest, in terms of giving industrial traffic what it needs while protecting drivers on U.S. 62. Austin said while the ultimate start date will depend on federal funding that is expected to cover a large part of the estimated $21 million project, ODOT and City of Lawton officials are proceeding with the necessary work that would allow ODOT to bid the project in September 2025.

ODOT already has the project on its eight-year master plan as beginning in 2025, and Austin said officials also are preparing for the environmental assessments that must be submitted to federal officials before the project is authorized to begin.

“We hope to do it this summer,” Austin said.

Dianna Brice likes that timeframe because she supports the project.

“We live in Pecan Valley,” she said, explaining she has to travel east every morning for her job on Fort Sill, so she knows about the traffic — and the deteriorating road conditions caused by heavy traffic. “The roads are horrible.”

Lawton officials have said one reason they support the industrial bypass is because it will take heavy trucks off arterials, lessening damage. Many of those trucks now use Cache Road, West Lee Boulevard and Northwest 82nd Street into and out of the industrial park.