text: "John Kilpatrick Turnpike Expected to Open in 1 Year" by May, Bill - THE JOURNAL RECORD, September 21, 1990 | Online Research Library: Questia
  Home » Browse » Newspapers » U.S. Newspapers » THE JOURNAL RECORD » Article details, "John Kilpatrick Turnpike Expected to Open in 1..."
  John Kilpatrick Turnpike Expected to Open in 1 Year
  The John Kilpatrick Turnpike in northern Oklahoma City is expected to open in September 1991, according to Richard Ridings, chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority.
  Under construction since June 1989, the Kilpatrick Turnpike will run along the W. Memorial Rd. corridor to connect the Turnpike toll plaza with Lake Hefner Parkway, near Portland Ave.
  It was not scheduled to open until January 1992.
  Two other turnpikes, the Chickasaw in southeastern Oklahoma and the Cherokee in eastern Oklahoma, are to open before the end of 1991, Ridings said Thursday.
  These three turnpikes are part of a four turnpike construction package for which $558.4 million worth of revenue bonds were issued in February 1989. The Creek Turnpike, a half-loop around south Tulsa, is still on schedule, Ridings told trustees of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority meeting in Oklahoma City.
  Even though the Kilpatrick Turnpike will be open for traffic in September 1991, its connecting access, Lake Hefner Parkway, will not open until its scheduled time of January 1992, Transportation Secretary Neal McCaleb said.
  "We are still on our schedule and I don't see how that can be speeded up," he said. "But, maybe we could speed up the access roads on both sides so that motorists could have some access from the south."
  Most of Lake Hefner Parkway will be completed, exept for the section between NW 122nd St. and Memorial Rd., McCaleb said.
  The parkway, formerly known as the West Bypass, is a project of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to provide a six-lane, limited access highway along the eastern shore of Lake Hefner. It starts at about NW 66th St. …