Oklahoma Turnpike Halted

Senator Mary Boren, who represents part of the impacted areas in Norman, doesn't trust what the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) is saying as it announced the pause of the Access Oklahoma project.

“And in their statement, they claimed financial stability of the turnpike system and also the bond approval process, and that claim needs to be checked,” says Sen. Boren.

Boren requested State Auditor Cindy Byrd to do a "credit check" on the bond process.

“When the people in Norman that have the expertise and have spent their whole life looking into the credit worthiness and the claims of governmental contractors, one thing that we realize is that the claims on the return of revenue for the bonds, for the fees that are paid, the toll fees that are paid, the claimed and anticipated revenues have not panned out,” says Sen. Boren.

Boren was joined by members of "Pike Off OTA" who are opposed to the new proposed south turnpike expansion planned to go through the Thunderbird Lake area. Members believe OTA revenue is falling short.

“So, I’d like you guys to look at that and see the gigantic gap that is between what they projected to come in and what actually is coming in. Their inability to make debt service payments on that and take care of maintenance and operations, and that's the playbook they've used for years and years and years,” says Randy Carter a spokesman with Pike Off OTA.

The OTA has its defenders, including contractors who will bid and work on the projects.

“I'm confident that we will be back on track. What Norman will look like, I don't know, but I will tell you that the citizens of Norman really deserve better than what's coming out of those very few loud citizens of Norman. That town is going to gridlock before you know it, congestion kills, and we see that by the semi that just killed those folks on 35 coming up through Davis," says Bobby Stem the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Association of General Contractors.

The OTA does push back on the claim that it isn’t financially responsible for its revenues.

"Some turnpikes will always bring in more revenue, which contributes to the entire system and is the reason OTA has been able to construct much-needed highways across the state while maintaining its tolls more than 60% below the national average. It’s unfortunate that misleading and inaccurate information continues to be presented to the media (public) to fit a narrowly defined purpose," says Stem.

The paused Access Oklahoma projects include the south turnpike expansion, the Kilpatrick and Turner turnpike widening, and additional work around the Tulsa area.

Stem says OTA was prudent to halt work due to ongoing litigation which limits the agency's access to bond markets to pay for projects.

“Because of the legal challenges, it began to delay and delay. Well, the prudent thing to do is say, hey, look, we can't continue to spend this, do these dollars monthly that we kind of set aside for this. Let's push pause, let's let the legal questions run their course, and then we'll unpause it and get back to work,” says Stem.

Stem says this has put a damper on the hiring process for contractors.

“We were all gearing up to purchase equipment, lease equipment, repair equipment, and hire people thinking that we had this stream of work that was coming and that's been placed on hold right now. So, our hiring is down and our purchasing is down as well,” says Stem.

As of now, OTA is unsure when work will resume due to multiple ongoing legal cases.

Richard Labarthe, who represented Pike Off OTA in a previous case says he doesn’t foresee OTA being handed new bonds so easily.

“We believe that it may be moot because the council on bond oversight had only given them 180 days to obtain favorable results from there, from the two cases, the poff case in our case. Of course, not only did they not obtain a favorable result, they lost,” says Labarthe.

In December, a Cleveland County judge ruled that OTA violated the open meeting act concerning the Access Oklahoma program.

“And that as a consequence, all of those big multimillion-dollar contracts that they had awarded to their friends amongst these various engineering firms were invalid,” says Labarthe.

Carter lives in the path of the newly proposed south turnpike expansion.

“It's pretty unnerving to sit down and realize that the seat that I’m sitting in, in my living room is going to be future median at the middle of the highway,” says Carter.

He hopes the temporary pause will give him and the organization some momentum.

“I think a pause is a good thing. It gives us a chance to work on our cause to try to bring them under control and put some guideposts on the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority so they can do things correctly," says Carter.

Both Pike Off OTA and their legal team say the fight is far from over. 

“We allege that the OTA expended millions of dollars pursuant to contracts that have been invalidated and they're bound to seek the return of the money back to the state. So, the fight is gonna continue,” says Alexey Tarasov an attorney with Labarthe Law.