Interstate 240 (Oklahoma)
Interstate 240 is an Interstate Highway in southern Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, that runs from I-344 /SH-152 to I-40. The Interstate overlaps State Highway 3, the longest Oklahoma state highway, for most of its length and functions as a southern bypass around the Downtown area and is the spur of I-40.
Major destinations along the route include Tinker Air Force Base and the heavily populated southside of Oklahoma City. With just under of commercial space, I-240 is a major corridor of retail, industrial, and office space., however, the corridor included some "pockets of shuttered stores and creeping shabbiness" and local planners were in the first stages of efforts to revitalize the corridor.
Route description
From the western terminus at I-344, I-240 runs east towards I-44 along airport road, it then goes concurrent with I-44 to U.S. Highway 62 /SH-3, it then runs east toward I-35. This western half is the busier of the two sections, serving the Southside area of Oklahoma City and traffic headed to the airport. This segment has a configuration of ramps that causes much weaving and many accidents. An entrance ramp merges onto the highway, forming a new lane. This new lane then becomes an "exit only" lane for the next exit. However, the exits are not spaced very far apart, causing entering and exiting traffic to conflict. Signs were installed in October 2004 designating the western half of I-240 as the Keith Leftwich Memorial Loop in honor of a state senator who had died around that time. I-240 meets I-35 at a cloverleaf interchange. US-62 splits off to join with I-35 northbound at this interchange.The section of I-240 east of I-35 exists primarily to serve the now-closed General Motors plant and Tinker Air Force Base. This section is much less traveled, having only four lanes for much of its length. At I-240's eastern terminus with I-40, motorists traveling eastbound on I-240 are forced to merge onto I-40 eastbound—there is no I-40 westbound offramp.
History
The section of what is now I-240 between I-35 and current I-44 was already complete in 1965 as an alignment of US-62. When the Interstate route was initially established in the 1960s, I-240 ran from its current eastern terminus around the city, turning north at the present interchange with I-44, continuing on the present course of I-44 to its present southern junction with I-35. I-240 thus nearly created a loop around the city, intersecting both I-35 and I-40 twice. The section east of I-35 to its eastern terminus at I-40 was completed in 1973. The entirety of the route was complete in 1976. Once completed, I-240 was long.As part of Oklahoma's 75th anniversary celebrations in 1982, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation extended I-44 to Lawton and Wichita Falls, Texas, along the H.E. Bailey Turnpike. This caused the western terminus of I-240 to be truncated to I-44 near Will Rogers World Airport.
On August 2, 2021, the Oklahoma Transportation Commission approved an extension to the I-240 designation to form a beltway around Oklahoma City. Starting in the existing eastern terminus, I-240 will run concurrent with I-40 to the Kickapoo Turnpike, then turn north and follow the Kickapoo Turnpike north to I-44, then turn west along I-44 to the Kilpatrick Turnpike, following that road west and south to its current southern terminus at SH-152, then turning east along SH-152 and following that road east to I-44, which it will overlap until reaching the current western terminus of I-240, bringing the total length of the proposed I-240 loop to. If signed, it will become the longest complete beltway numbered as a single Interstate Highway in the US, supplanting I-275 in Cincinnati, Ohio, at. ODOT Director Tim Gatz stated in the Transportation Commission meeting that the numbering change was primarily to aid in navigation using digital mapping and routing applications. Gatz also said: The designation was approved by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in October 2021 with the condition that the Federal Highway Administration approve it as well.
In Fall 2023, the AASHTO approved an application from ODOT for an interstate designation on the Kickapoo Turnpike and the Kilpatrick Turnpike. However, the designations were assigned as I-335 and I-344 respectively; I-240 would not be extended along the turnpikes in order to give the turnpikes distinctive designation. In March 2024, the OTA announced that it would extend I-240 along Airport Road to the junction with the Kilpatrick Turnpike when the turnpike was designated as I-344. SH-152's eastern terminus was truncated to the junction between the turnpike and I-240.