OTA can’t guarantee roads will remain free in Cleveland, Tulsa counties

The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s executive director tells News 4 he cannot guarantee current free road access will remain along the routes of two existing roads in Cleveland and Tulsa County, even though the OTA’s website shows free access remaining.

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) –The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s Executive Director Joe Echelle told News 4 he cannot guarantee current free road access along the routes of two existing roads in Cleveland and Tulsa County when the Authority builds two planned turnpikes.

But, the Access Oklahoma website contains maps of the future turnpikes, showing free access roads would be built alongside them.

The existing portion of Indian Hills Road in question runs between I-35 and Western Avenue.

Maps on the OTA’s Access Oklahoma website show the proposed ‘East-West Connector’ Turnpike would run along the current path of Indian Hills Road. It shows one-way service roads on each side of the turnpike, which if built, would effectively keep the current, free access provided by Indian Hills Road in place.

Echelle confirmed to News 4, that is what he wants to see happen.

“There are portions of [a new turnpike] where we parallel an existing Indian Hills Road. The proposal that the Turnpike Authority is showing currently on our website shows one way frontage roads on each side of the new turnpike, which called the East-West Connector,” Echelle said. “That's what we're proposing to be built."

But there’s a catch—Echelle said any plans for an access road to remain free would be up to the cities the turnpike runs through, not just the OTA.

“We are currently talking to the City of Newcastle, the City of Moore, City of Norman about the need for one way frontage roads, maybe the desire of those cities as they only have a frontage road on one side. That's two way obviously to frontage roads is more impactful than one frontage road,” echelle said.

Ultimately, he could not guarantee with 100-percent certainty that free access will remain where Indian Hills Road runs currently.

Maps on the OTA’s Access Oklahoma website also show parallel service roads being built along portions of the future Gilcrease Expressway Turnpike extension between 41st West Ave. and LL Tisdale Parkway in Tulsa County. Currently, a two-lane free road exists on that same route.

Echelle told News 4 he doesn’t know if those service roads—posted publicly on his agency's website—will actually be included in the final plan. He could not guarantee any free access will remain for drivers where the current free road stands.

“What that looks like, ultimately, I'm not even for sure because we haven't even really taken possession of those plans,” Echelle said. “It's a part of the program because it's something that we know needs to be built and our state needs to serve Tulsa and Northwest Tulsa, we think better, but we haven't really gotten into the design of that at all.”

The OTA faced heavy backlash in 2022 when it opened a different leg of the Gilcrease Expressway Turnpike in Tulsa County.

Part of that leg of the turnpike was built on top of an existing, two-lane road. The OTA did not build any service roads to keep the free access there, and drivers now have to pay a toll when they drove for free.

“And then somewhere it morphed into a turnpike versus just a feasible road to get to and from work to home,” said Melissa Myers who lives near the Gilcrease.

Members of the group PikeOff OTA tell News 4 the OTA’s lack of commitment to keep free access roads in place, and has been paid for with tax dollars in both cases, is concerning.

“I feel like the Turnpike Authority has—as we've seen with the Gilcrease—a history of saying one thing and doing another and then pretending like that was the plan all along,” said Tassie Hirschfeld, a member of PikeOff OTA. “And I think there are so many citizens potentially impacted by this that it's time to say stop, it's enough already.”

Hirschfeld said she doesn’t understand why the OTA would publish maps online showing free access roads would be built along the East-West Connector and Gilcrease, if those plans weren’t final.

“From day one, Access Oklahoma has been misrepresented to the public because public has been kept in the dark until the very last minute,” Hirschfeld said. “They should not have put it on the website without talking to the community, to community leaders, and getting buy in from the public. And so when they encounter opposition, they try to backtrack and say, oh, that's not final. We're not sure.”