A ribbon cutting was held Wednesday morning as Okmulgee County commissioners recognized the official completion and opening of the Dentonville Road Project. According to District #2 Commissioner David Walker, the project took one year and eight months to complete. It covered 8.54 miles (5.89 miles in District #2) and 2.65 miles in District #1.

The cost of the project was $7.36 million, which averages to about $861,826 per mile.

District #1 and District #2 worked together to get the combined Dentonville Road from Highway 16 to Highway 56 completed.

The funding was made possible through County Improvement for Roads and Bridges (CIRB) Program, which was created in 2006 by House Bill 1176.

CIRB has proven to be a valuable program to Oklahoma. Since inception, CIRB funds have been involved in nearly $2 billion in construction on the county system.

This represents a significant investment to the infrastructure of the state and speaks to the strong partnership between the counties, CEDs, ODOT and many other entities who are involved with bringing this plan to reality each year.

This state funded program through ODOT provides funding for construction or reconstruction of county roads or bridges on the county highway system that are of the highest priority as defined by the Transportation Commission.

The program consists of state apportionments from the Motor Vehicle Collection Tax of $120 million dollars per state fiscal year. The monthly apportionments are divided in equal amounts between the eight ODOT Transportation Commission Districts.

A five-year construction work plan, updated annually, is cooperatively developed and maintained by the Circuit Engineering Districts and the Local Government Division at ODOT. Approximately 75 percent of the five-year CIRB construction plan is funded with CIRB funds and the other 25 percent may come from federal Surface Transportation Program (STP), Tribal federal dollars, city or county local funds.

Commissioner Erik Zoellner added that the entire project required “teamwork. We collaborated together to make this happen … And we do it regularly (such as) with what just happened with the tornado – that was part of District Two, and part of District Three. We collaborated together as a team, and that’s something that the citizens of Okmulgee County need to know.”