Within two weeks State Highway 20 (& East Main St.) traffic will be rerouted to the new Broadway Bridge over Blackjack Creek and the bridge on Main Street will be closed and torn down for replacement. Construction will begin Monday Oct. 29, 2007 on a temporary asphalt connection from Main to Broadway that will replace the current 90 degree connection with a more direct path for semi's and cars to navigate until the new Main Street bridge is completed. The traffic switch to the Broadway Bridge is anticipated sometime the week of Nov. 5th by Sherwood Construction Company. The entire project is expected to complete before May 2008 with a 4-lane curbed Main Street from Highway 169 to 5th Street including the new 4-lane bridge with sidewalk and handrails. Access to businesses between 5th and Hwy 169 will be maintained but limited by the construction and barricades.

Traffic flow at 5th and Broadway will favor the east-west movement with stop signs expected to be removed. The north-south traffic at 5th and Broadway will still have stop signs. The City and ODOT are also discussing potential temporary changes at the S-Curve (19th & Broadway) to accomodate the traffic flow differences but those plans are yet set.

Two other Collinsville/ODOT projects will follow soon: 1) Two blocks downtown (Main between 10th and 12th) will be under construction within a few weeks with ODOT just approving the beautification contact this week that was accepted by the City of Collinsville at their Oct. 1st meeting. 2) The S-Curve contruction is not expected to begin construction before late spring or summer in 2008.

When the new Main Street gateway is completed the temporary detour connection to Broadway will be removed. A future county project will likely extend Broadway directly in front of Kent's Custom Cars and connect to the "old" Hwy 169 which T's into Main just west of the "new" Hwy 169.

Bruce Arnold (Tulsa ODOT representative, phone 836-7116), Gary Smith (from Collinsville) the ODOT project manager, and Sherwood Construction officials (John Hamilton, Scott Middleton and Robert Mills) were at Collinsville City Hall to answer questions Thursday Oct. 25, 2007. Some of the neighboring businesses represented at the meeting were Sinclair, Brinkleys, Karen's Kitchen, Sonic, American Bank, Kent's and Collinsville Auto Sales. The City of Collinsville was also represented.

The speed limit on the detour will be 35 MPH or less. Concerns over a 19ft wide section of the existing Broadway east of the bridge will be investigated further. Improvements to that section were delayed while most of the remainder of Broadway near the new bridge were done to 5th Street.

Please drive slowly in all construction zones and be patient and observant as changes are made daily over the following months. And please continue to support the businesses in the construction zones. -- Ted Wright 10-25-2007