OTA Awards $75.4M Contract for Toby Keith Expressway Interchange Near Newcastle
The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority Board has awarded a $75.4 million contract to build a new interchange connecting I-44, the Toby Keith Expressway, and SH-37 near Newcastle, Oklahoma Energy Today reports. The award is part of a roughly 13-project push to complete the new turnpike’s alignment between I-44 and I-35, and marks the sixth contract awarded so far on that buildout.
A joint venture between Allen and Shell won the interchange contract, coming in about 1.6% below the engineer’s estimate after four companies bid. OTA Director of Engineering Darian Butler presented the winning bid to the Board; the scope includes new bridges and ramps connecting I-44, 24th Street, and SH-37, along with service roads and mainline construction.
In a separate award at the same meeting, OTA gave a nearly $2.85 million contract to Paradigm Construction, about 13.8% below the engineer’s estimate, to rehabilitate a US-412/Cimarron Turnpike bridge over an unnamed creek in Pawnee County, replacing the concrete deck, parapets, beams, and bearing assemblies.
The meeting, the first under new OTA Chairman Will Berry, also finalized a new one-year law enforcement agreement with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, covering roughly $25.6 million in annual payments for trooper salaries, benefits, and patrol vehicles on the turnpike system.
What It Means for Subcontractors
- The $75.4M interchange package (bridges, ramps, service roads, mainline) is now under contract to Allen/Shell, a firm signal for Oklahoma heavy-civil subs to watch for near-term subcontracting and material-supply bid packages as the joint venture staffs up.
- Five contracts already awarded ahead of this one on the 13-project Toby Keith Expressway buildout means a steady multi-year pipeline of interchange, bridge, and mainline work between I-35 and I-44, worth tracking for Oklahoma paving, structural, and utility-relocation crews.
- The separate $2.85M Cimarron Turnpike bridge rehab (Paradigm Construction) shows OTA is also steadily letting smaller bridge-maintenance packages, a good entry point for regional structural repair subcontractors bidding below the $10M threshold.
