Roads always lead to somewhere across Choctaw Nation
Most programs of the Choctaw Nation are available only to members of the Choctaw Nation, and others for those members within the 10 1/2 county service area of southeast Oklahoma. But when it comes to roads, and a few more vehicle and movement-related construction events, the Choctaw Nation steps up to the plate.
Everyone who lives in Bethel or Battiest or attends school at Battiest uses the Bethel cutoff from Broken Bow. They will now be saving approximately seven miles per trip. A number of repairs and even new constructions were requested from a variety of sources, both tribal members and the public. These requests make their way to the Choctaw Nation Transportation program. Some jobs were not that big, and some not even roads. A school parking lot cost $65,677.
Other jobs turn out to be very big indeed. Two road constructions ran in excess of $2,000,000 each. In all, 1,414 families were immediately impacted by these 13 miles of improvements. As the year unfurls, there are already 10 jobs, each in a different county, at various stages of completion. As the concrete solidifies, so does the cost. Work on these 26.12 miles is closing out at $26,055,068.54. Affected are no less than 156 families. For 2016, 11 more projects are scheduled to begin construction: one is a parking lot for a Head Start/daycare facility; the other 10 encompass road work in seven different counties.
Some 530 families are expected to be served by this 27.85 miles of road development. Completion dates for these projects range from March to December, with most in the latter part of the year. In addition to county roads and school parking lots, earlier projects under taken by the Choctaw Nation have included items such as the winding road from the street to the parking lot of the Atoka Sports Center, and the quarter-mile concrete walking trail at the same location. These eyes-toward-health also increase the liveability and appeal of communities.
Anyone can make a request to the Choctaw Nation, but the typical approach is an individual or an organization makes an appeal to a tribal councilman. The request is then considered by the council as a whole. If approved at that level, the next step is sending the idea to the Natural Resources Department and Executive Director Wayne Wylie. It’s then assigned to Transportation where a staff will research the total impact and viability of the job. If it is defined as a need of Choctaw families and others within the service area it is then given the green light. Bids are then taken by companies interested in doing the job. Again research is carried out, narrowing the choices until one is selected based on its qualifications.
Once work begins, Transportation staff periodically visit the work site and reports are made on progress. Something seemingly as routine as filling potholes and resurfacing a bumpy road is not quite so simple. First a plan is engineered with specs determined. Then all right-of-way permits must be obtained. A job may include tearing out invasive trees, retrenching ditches, moving fences, tearing out and rebuilding private driveways, and adding new tin horns (metal drainage pipes). The 5.11 miles of Nixon Road required construction of a concrete plant nearby to supply the needs of the job. Such things add to the cost and time of a project.
According to Transportation staff, the work on Voca Road is typical of a project. “The county is taking care of five miles, then the Choctaw Nation is doing two miles,” said a field rep. With all that, such jobs are designed to come in at 120-160 days. A lot goes into a “simple” resurfacing job. But is it worth it? Ask the at-least 2,100 families whose lives will be made easier, and safer, within the coming year thanks to the new roads/good neighbor efforts of the Choctaw Nation Transportation Program.