Perkins residents save trees; Oklahoma Department of Transportation moves ahead with U.S. 177 widening project

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Perkins resident Diane Bridenstine, right talks with ODOT Chief of Right of Ways and Utilities Kurt Harms during an open forum for the proposed U.S. 177 widening project at the Vassar Community Center in Perkins on Tuesday.
ODOT Director of Operations Casey Shell tells Perkins residents the U.S. 177 project should start in spring or summer 2011. It should take 18 months.
ODOT employees Kurt Harms, left, and Tim Berry talk as the look over plans for the proposed U.S. 177 widening during a forum at the Vassar Community Center in Perkins on Tuesday.

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March 17, 2010

By Chris Day Stillwater NewsPress

STILLWATER, Okla. — PERKINS – Bill Jones is excited the mighty oaks on his property won’t be cut down in the name of progress.

“I’ve been assured they will bore under those trees. We have worked to save those trees. It makes me feel better,” he said. Jones lives on the corner of U.S. 177 and Kirk Street.

The large trees shade his house from the east and west. The shade keeps his cooling bills low, he said.

Jones was one of approximately 35 Perkins residents at an Oklahoma Department of Transportation meeting Tuesday night at the Vassar Community Center. State agency representatives updated residents on the four-lane widening project of U.S. 177 from its intersection with S.H. 33 to Freeman Avenue. The accompanying drainage project from S.H. 33 along the route and down First Street in Perkins also was discussed.

The state agency’s Director of Operations Casey Shell reviewed the plan.

• U.S. 177 will be widened from two-to-four lanes with gutters and curbs from S.H. 33 to Freeman Avenue.

• A drainage basin will be built on the western corner of the U.S. 177/S.H. 33 intersection on land presently owned by Mike McWherter. The basin, which will be designed to hold water for only 24 hours after a rain, now is located on property adjacent to the highways. McWherter and Perkins officials have asked the state to move the basin deeper into the property leaving room for development between the basin and the highways. Shell said there’s a good chance that can be accomplished. Drain pipes will be installed along the route before jogging west to First Street. The pipes will run down the middle of First Street.

“We aren’t rerouting the highway,” Shell said. First Street will remain two lanes. It will have drain pipes running down the middle underneath the street surface. The pipe will empty into a canal and the water will eventually flow into the Cimmaron River.

• The state agency is negotiating rights-of-way now. A contract is expected to be awarded in spring or summer 2011 with construction starting about two months later. The project will likely run 18 months depending on weather, Shell said.

Residents wondered if the road could be widened to three lanes instead of four.

Shell agreed traffic on the road today didn’t need four lanes. The agency plans and builds 50 years out. U.S. 177 will have enough traffic for four lanes in that time frame, Shell said.

Residents also sought a traffic signal installed at U.S. 177 and Freeman Avenue. State officials said the traffic count didn’t justify a signal there according to federal guidelines. Shell suggested Indian tribes might pick up the approximately $200,000 tab for traffic signals. He also ordered a new traffic study there to see if traffic had increased enough to install signals there.

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