The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s recent decision to temporarily halt work on the ACCESS Oklahoma expansion initiative affects all proposed projects, not just the ones landowners southeast of Oklahoma City have been fighting. Residents of tiny Davenport in Lincoln County tell KWTV they are disappointed about the delay’s impact on a plan to widen the Turner Turnpike between I-35 and and SH-66. One aim of that project (Number T-26008) is to construct a new interchange that the townspeople see as crucial to economic development.
Last summer, The Oklahoman talked to Davenport residents about the effect Eisenhower-era turnpike construction had on some previously thriving small towns, and why they place so much importance on the proposed new Turner interchange.