A bridge that’s down to one lane in far south Broken Arrow is raising a lot of questions.
A 2 News Oklahoma viewer reached out to us wanting to know why it's been under construction for at least a year.
Lewis Watkins travels this bridge every single day. It's on County Line Road immediately North of 161st Street.
“I live out here too, we have a farm out here that we have trucks come in and out of,” Lewis Watkins, Broken Arrow resident said.
Last year, the city said it narrowed the bridge to one lane because it has significant structural integrity issues.
“Well we got a bridge that they say is down to the eight ton limit…they’ve got 20 ton of concrete sitting on it.” It don’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but they’ve had this bridge down for about a year,” Watkins said.
The city of Broken Arrow said the posted weight limit factors in the concrete barriers and they've placed beams under the bridge. However, the weight limit still forces Watkins and other truck drivers to take a detour he believes isn't any safer.
“The bridge you have to cross on the detour is worse than this bridge by far,” Watkins said.
Watkins said not everyone sees the weight limit and he worries about driver safety.
“Here comes a truck now, it’s not supposed to be crossing it," he chuckled."It's not supposed to be crossing it,” he said.
So why has it taken so long?
Broken Arrow said the road is divided with the Southbound lane in Broken Arrow and the Northbound lane in Wagoner County.
Broken Arrow said since counties budget for bridges and cities don't, they are working on an agreement with Wagoner County to take over the completion of the bridge repair.
Once they agree, the city council will have to approve it.
Watkins just hopes they come up with an agreement soon because he said it’s a big inconvenience.
“The neighbors on the detours would appreciate the bridge being fixed because it doesn’t dust their house out from all the truck traffic going down back and forth with all the gravel roads,” Watkins said.
2 News Oklahoma reached out to Wagoner Count to ask when they are expecting to reopen the bridge to two lanes and are still awaiting a response.
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