OKDot moved the Will Rogers Turnpike just east of it's original alignment so it would match up with a new interchange at US 412 and the Creek Turnpike. Used to be it paralleled 66 until it reached the intersection of 66, US 77 and OK 33 (now US 412). The Creek Turnpike was built to connect the Will Rogers and Turner Turnpikes to have a clear route around Tulsa and on to OKC. Before then, you had to follow 66 through Tulsa to reach the Turner off Southwest Blvd.
There could be some pretty bad traffic jams at the ends of the turnpike when this was the case. I remember being in one on the day that OU played Tulsa at Skelly Stadium in the mid 1980s.
@@aaronholcomb237 yes the Turner Turnpike was the same as well. Toll booths on each end rather than the one in the middle. It did get rather ugly sometimes. 😁
Both end of it run into active interstate highways, it basically was abandoned because additional freeways were added. Building slightly west of the existing road allowed it to be done with less traffic disruption and a simpler juncture between all four directions to be made. If anything the most likely alternate could have been making it a local city street, but it is still a few miles out from current dense sprawl, so would have been even further out when having consistent traffic could have reduced the plant growth slowing decay.
What's story I know only one highway in my nation it's abandoned it used to connect to old bridge and the bridge is removed now it's very small like 70 meters
It was closed down to encourage the use of Creek Turnpike and cut down on the confusion navigating the junction of OK-66, US-412, I-44 and Creek Turnpike
This particular section was one of the most dangerous roads in Tulsa. If you look at the interchange where this meets Route 66 on Google Earth Pro (which lets you go back in time to see when this was still in use), you can see how sharp the turns were.
It’s a section of I-44 that was abandoned to connect the new at the time Creek Turnpike and I-44. Yes, it’s really abandoned and no there are no plane to reconnect or remove at this time.
You're thinking of the old highway bridge next to I-44 over the Canadian River in the OKC metro area, which I think had been closed to traffic at that time.
There used to be a truss bridge that ran parallel to I-44 just north of Newcastle. It was close to where both the 1999 and 2013 tornadoes crossed the interstate but I don't think it was necessarily damaged by either storm.
It was rerouted to facilitate a more straight-forward interchange with US-412 and Creek Turnpike. And ODOT/OTA just never took care of removing the original section
![Abandoned Interstate Highway in Oklahoma USA [I-44 & Route-66]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
