The Oklahoma Department of Transportation is unveiling plans to widen a 3-mile stretch of Oklahoma Highway 9 east of Norman.
State highway officials say there have been at least 136 wrecks on a 2-mile stretch of the highway over the past 10 years. The transportation department unveiled plans to widen the highway from two to four lanes at a public meeting Tuesday at the Little Axe Community Center.
Resident Barbara Parr told KOKH-TV she's lived near SH-9 and 72nd Ave. Southeast nearly her entire life.
Parr says changes like turn lanes have helped cut down on deadly accidents near her home. She's a farmer and rancher and says she's worried about the details of the plan to widen the road from two to four lanes; specifically what the median will look like. "We have hay on the north side of the highway and cows and our home on the south side and so we need to be able to get to our hay field," she said.
The $13 million project is expected to begin in 2020 and will be completed in less than two years.
The highway department says about 2,400 vehicles used the highway when it was built in the 1960s. Now, about 10,000 vehicles use the road daily.
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