Crews Recycle Beams From Old I-40 Crosstown Bridge

As the old crosstown bridge come down, the beams are on the move. They're being recycled to help support county projects such as bridges.

"Many people don't realize the largest transportation system in the state is the county system," Oklahoma County Commissioner (District 3,) Ray Vaughn said. "We have about 3/4 of the road miles in the system and the state."

The beams from the old Interstate 40 crosstown bridge become new again in county road and bridge projects.

"We had this design already, matter of fact, we redesigned it so we could use the crosstown beams," Vaughn said.

The project County commissioner Vaughn is so excited about this brand new bridge that will be on McArthur and Covell in Deer Creek, to help stop the problem with flooding. Every time we get a good rain, this roadway shuts down to traffic. This isn't the only project that will be using the recycled cross town beams.

"Finally underway, moving some of those beams out to the counties, 20 locations statewide we're hauling them to," ODOT Engineer, Paul Green said.

ODOT Engineer Paul Green says 1,800 to 1,900 recycled beams will help build 300 to 350 new bridges in Oklahoma Counties across the state, helping out the more than 3,000 structurally deficient bridges we have now in the county.

ODOT says those old beams still have 50 to 70 years of good use on them. The Deer Creek project is expected to take about one year to complete.