Highway 281 Under Construction Near Geary

GEARY – The Oklahoma Department of Transportation has begun work on a $1 million project that will resurface the US-281 spur between Geary and I-40 in Canadian County.

Drivers will notice reduced speed limits in the area while crews get to work. However, ODOT’s Rick Howland told The Geary Star that he doesn’t expect the project to last for more than two or three months.

Workers started “full-depth patching” work last week, he said. “So where there’s areas we may have some sub-base issues, they’ve gone in and basically drilled down to earth, and are basically addressing some issues there.”

Once crews finish the patch work in two or three weeks, they’ll overlay the existing road with new pavement.

“It’s to help extend the life cycle of the pavement,” Howland explained. “They’ll go in and basically put a new surface on it to help the roadway last as long as it can without redoing the whole thing.”

The construction will run from the Cherokee Trading Post all the way up to the 281 turnoff toward I-40 and Hinton. Speed limits along the route have been temporarily lowered from 70 to 60 mph.

“There may be people working real close to live traffic, so yeah, whichever side they may be working on, whichever direction they’re heading, they may just want to pay a little more attention.”