By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
EL RENO – An agreement has been signed, sealed and delivered to finally make State Highway 66 and Banner Road a permanent four-way stop.
Canadian County commissioners on May 15 unanimously approved a resolution to participate with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) in the four-way stop intersection project. This is a state roadway in Canadian County District 1.
ODOT is due to hire a contractor this fall to make the permanent upgrades.
District 1 County Commissioner Tom Manske said he looks forward to ODOT’s intersection project being completed in 2023.
“They will pay for the new pavement and new lighting,” Manske said.
The SH-66/Banner Road intersection is on ODOT’s September bid-letting schedule. Estimated project cost is $400,000 and 60 calendar days are allotted for construction.
Canadian County and ODOT officials “are in agreement to make the intersection a permanent four-way stop,” the resolution reads.
They also agreed “after this period of temporary traffic control, that creating a four-way stop” at the SH-66/Banner Road intersection has “proven effective.”
Interim safety improvements were made to this intersection more than three years ago after a November 2019 traffic collision that killed Yukon businessman Ray Lee Davis.
In February 2020, the intersection was reconfigured to an all-way stop with flashing red beacons in all directions as part of the temporary upgrade. One approach lane was closed, and rumble strips and advance warning signs were installed.
ODOT intends to repave and restripe the intersection, installing new rumble strips, and create more lighting in the SH-66/Banner Road area, according to the resolution.
The temporary barricades and traffic cones will be removed once the permanent upgrades are completed.
Canadian County has agreed to pay for utility service to the current fixture at the intersection, the document indicates.
Canadian County Commission Chairman Dave Anderson, Commissioner Tracey Rider and Commissioner Manske formally requested ODOT to proceed with the proposed improvements.
Manske supported keeping the intersection as a four-way stop.
ODOT previous studied two other “design alternatives” – one to install a single-lane roundabout and the other a fully signalized intersection, both of which would have been more costly.
FATAL CRASH
The SH-66/Banner Road intersection had been the site of dozens of serious traffic collisions – including several deadly crashes – over several decades.
Before February 2020, only traffic on Banner Road was required to stop at the intersection and there was no control for eastbound and westbound traffic on SH-66.
Flashing beacons had faced each approach, flashing red toward Banner Road and yellow toward SH-66.
Davis, 73, was riding his motorcycle eastbound on Highway 66 on Nov. 24, 2019, when he was struck and killed by a semi-truck turning left from Banner Road.
The truck driver, Donald Garrett Biffle, failed to yield and was driving under the influence of drugs.
Biffle was convicted of second-degree murdered and sentenced in March 2021 to serve to 50 years in state prison, with 15 of those years suspended. He is now housed at the Lawton Correctional Facility.
Davis was a U.S. Navy veteran who founded and owned a retail carpet store in Yukon.
The State of Oklahoma has named the SH-66/Banner Road intersection in his memory.
