Millions needed to repair Crowder/Blocker road

Local News

March 4, 2008

By James Beaty The McAlester News-Capital Tue Mar 04, 2008, 09:57 AM CST

More than $11 million.

That’s an engineer’s estimate on how much it will cost to repair the Crowder/Blocker Road. The road has been crumbling at the sides, splitting and breaking loose from a bridge which spans Lake Eufaula.

Parts of the roadway are also settling into the lake, which has caused a lot of concern among drivers in the area — especially since the road is on a school bus route.

“The Crowder school is very concerned. Three or four buses run on it,” said District 1 Pittsburg County Commissioner Gene Rogers.

Crowder/Blocker road is about two miles east of Crowder and runs to Blocker. The bridge included in the roadway is more than 40 years-old.

Conducted by Wingfield Engineering in Antlers, the engineering study estimates the cost of repairing affected sections of the roadway at $11,811,267.55.

That’s for the road only and does not include the bridge or the bridge abutments, Rogers said.

“It’s everything we need, except for the bridge abutments,” he said, adding that the bridge itself is fine. The abutments where the bridge begins and ends have settled into the lake and are needing work, according to Rogers.

The latest estimated cost resulting from the engineering study is much higher then previous estimates.

In 2006, Rogers said a preliminary estimate placed the cost at from $3 to $5 million. The new estimate is closer to $12 million.

While acknowledging that’s a lot of money, Rogers said the engineering study results were necessary to show how much money will be required.

“It means we can go forward,” Rogers said. “We were at a standstill because we needed to know how much we needed.”

Rogers, who said he got the numbers on Monday, said the next step is to meet with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which the Choctaw Nation is working through in an effort to help.

“The county ain’t got anything other than regular bridge money,” Rogers said.

As for what’s next, Rogers said he should soon have additional information.

“We should have some more answers after ODOT sees this,” he said.

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.

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