The Chandler City Council voted 3-2 to close down Allison Street from Rt. 66 to Fifth Street due to a bridge replacement project by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation at their monthly meeting on Feb. 13.
ODOT will be replacing the railroad bridge on Rt. 66/Mickey Clarkson Avenue near Allison and plans to expand it, according to City Manager Jason Orr. Because of this expansion, the bridge plate will come out too far, and ODOT asked the council to either realign Allison where it meets Rt. 66 or close down the portion of the road behind City Hall.
In November, the City Council voted to not realign Allison due to safety concerns. Tuesday’s vote made that official. ODOT will remove the road and build a parking lot behind City Hall, said Orr. The area will be incorporated into Imel Park, named after former Mayor Gene Imel. The other option presented by ODOT was to build a cul de sac.
“Aesthetically, I think that [parking lot] makes more sense as we move forward with the park,” Mayor Kent McVey said. “Obviously, we need more parking for City Hall, and potentially, if people visit Imel Park, that would be there.”
Orr reported that ODOT said they would do everything they could to make the pedestrian side of the road look nice.
The bridge project is slated for completion around 2027. ODOT will not be starting on it until after the Rt. 66 Centennial, according to Orr, though they did say they might be able to remove that small portion of Allison and build the parking lot earlier if the Council requested it.