Broken Arrow getting closer to key state listing for Lynn Lane Road interchange improvements

By John Dobberstein, Editor

The wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly, but city officials are making progress in their fight to get the beleagured Lynn Lane Road interchange with the Broken Arrow Expressway on the state’s list of projects to fund.

The city of Broken Arrow has long sought money to upgrade the interchange, which is often jam-packed with both local traffic heading to shops and restaurants and commuters and commercial traffic entering and exiting the highway.

The city hired Benham Design in 2021 to do an engineering study for improvements to the Lynn Lane corridor from Kenosha Street to Hillside Drive, which includes the Highway 51 (BA Expressway). The cost for that study was $160,000.

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After presenting the final study to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, the state recommended additional studies be performed. During a budget workshop last month, Assistant City Manager Ken Schwab said ODOT asked the city if it was interested in expanding Lynn Lane to 7 lanes wide in that area, and the city answered “yes.”

If ODOT approves the additional studies, the project can be added to the state’s 8-year plan for funding. Because the project involves a state highway and is likely to cost tens of millions of dollars, ODOT must give its approval.

The cost to amend the original engineering contract with Benham, approved by the Broken Arrow City Council this week, is $102,000 and will be paid for with 2018 GO Bond funds.

Data from the Indian Nations Council of Governments (INCOG) pegs average daily traffic on the Broken Arrow Expressway at 61,000 vehicles per day at the Lynn Lane interchange in 2021 -- but that increases sharply to more than 120,000 as the expressway approaches Garnett Road. 

That figure is the second highest count in the Tulsa metro, trailing only Highway 169 near 51st Street that logged 148,000 cars per day.

Broken Arrow EDC data shows Lynn Lane Road at the Broken Arrow Expressway interchange logs about 34,000 cars per day.