BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — As Broken Arrow students head back to school Wednesday, the increase in traffic has city leaders issuing a warning. They want drivers to use extra caution because of a big widening project that impacts several schools.
“Everyone that lives here knows that street needs to be widening,” said Gary Deyoung.
Signs of construction are evident on Albany Street. There’s equipment, traffic cones and, of course, the workers. It’s happening between Lynn Lane and County Line Road in front of Broken Arrow High School, Creekwood Elementary, and the Creekwood Early Childhood Center.
“We’ll just put up with it,” said Deyoung.
Gary Deyoung moved to Broken Arrow in 2012. He lives nears the high school. In the last decade, he says he’s seen tremendous growth and construction is par for the course.
“More houses have been built and then the new school across the road,” said Deyoung. “So we knew eventually that 61st was going to have to be widened.”
The widening project started at the end of last school year. Wednesday, when students head back to the classroom, city leaders want to make sure drivers are being extra cautious around all the road work.
“It’s going to be a slow go, but it’s still going to be accessible,” said Aaron McColloch.
City of Broken Arrow Communications Director Aaron McColloch says traffic is down to one lane in each direction on Albany Street. As they expand the road to five lanes and improve the intersection at Albany Street and County Line Road, they’re expecting more cars on the road during the school year.
“The high school is going to have school resource officers out there to direct traffic coming to and from the school,” said McColloch.
Gary says he’ll try to plan around the busy morning and afternoon rush.
“We’ll take the back way out of the addition if we need to,” said Deyoung.
This isn’t the only road work happening in Broken Arrow. On County Line Road between Kenosha and Houston, crews are creating a new bridge over the Broken Arrow Expressway and widening County Line to five lanes.
“When you have roads that are just three lanes, but then you’ve seen growth continue over the years, you really do need to expand those,” said McColloch.
On 209th east avenue between Kenosha and Houston, we saw a widening project that will increase the road to three lanes. Crews are also working to widen Washington Street to five lanes between Olive and Aspen. All of the road work is expended to be finished by the Spring of 2024.
“We’re looking forward to that being done. It’ll be so much better,” said Deyoung.
There is still access to all of the schools off of Albany. Left turns are not allowed at the intersection of Albany Street and County Line Road.
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