The County Improvements for Roads and Bridges 5 year plan (OK Statutes Title 19 Section 507) has gotten final 
approval from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation Commissioners on November 3. Two-hundred and thirty one County Commissioners from the 77 counties in Oklahoma presented projects with the highest priority in each county for the $984,710,507 5 year plan. After several months, each counties plan was consolidated into a county transportation plan that was presented to ODOT Commissioner for final approval. The CIRB program (County Improvements for Roads and Bridges Revolving Fund) is a revolving fund for the exclusive use on the County Highway System. The Revolving Fund is funded through motor vehicle tag and license fees.
The plan includes 541 county bridges of which, 351 of those bridges are structurally deficient. Sixty-nine (69) of the 541 bridges in the plan will be constructed in part or in all of the recycled bridge beams from the I-40 crosstown in Oklahoma City. County Commissioners are full-filling Governor Fallin’s request and vision to increase transportation funding for the structurally deficient bridges in Oklahoma. Over 1,050 miles of the county highway system will be reconstructed to improve the driving surface and safety is also part of the 5 year plan.
The CIRB program was created as a revolving fund. This is very important for the funding of big road projects that the money in the account can carry-over year to year. The funding is distributed to each county within the eight ODOT Road Divisions. This money is accrued in each county’s allocation year to year to allow the counties to build up the money needed for big construction needs. Such as the six miles reconstruction and safety project on Etowah Road in Cleveland County or the three-quarter mile bridge in Greer County. The Etowah Road project cost $9 million and the Greer County bridge cost $4.5 million.
Although ODOT approves the plan and manages to money and oversees the project construction, it is the responsibility of County Commissioners to put the plan together and to help with right-away, utilities and communication with county residents.
This is a great time for County transportation construction. This is the largest transportation funding for counties of Oklahoma in history. You could say it is Oklahoma’s stimulus program for shovel ready jobs. The economic impact as these transportation projects get let will have over a billion dollar effect on Oklahoma’s economy.
The Chairman of the Transportation Commissioner said today,” that is a lot of money going to the county transportation system.” Director Patterson said during the meeting Monday,” that the funding in the CIRB 5 year plan would not get anywhere close to taking care of the county system.” He further said, “ODOT and the County Commissioners were working together toward the goal of making the County Highway system safer and stronger through the CIRB program.”
The County Highway System consists of 14,176 bridges and 85,109 miles of road of which 70% are gravel or dirt. There are still nearly 4,000 bridges that are structurally deficient, with over 500 of those bridges functionally obsolete. There is more work to be done but this historical transportation plan moves Counties and Oklahoma in the right direction.
