Oklahoma Roads - I-44/OK 66/US 412

I-44, , I-44/US 412


US 62 leaves I-44 WB and US 277 begins right here.

OK 37 EB button copy at the I-44 WB Exit 108 onramp.


I-44 EB in Oklahoma City, picking up OK 66 for the latter two photos. Exit 118 was for OK 152, which stayed on surface streets until Airport Road (a freeway, not a road) made it past SW 44th St. Exit 125A was for OK 3A, connecting west to OK 3.


EB approaching Tulsa, and once again OK 66 joins the highway for the last photo. It will stay on I-44 for the rest of the photos on this page. Creek Tpk. has to be its own destination because Turnpike shields stupidly write the road name in 2" tall letters that no one can read. "Trnpk" is also an abbreviation I've never seen before - why abbreviate at all? Speaking of things that can't be read, try the orange sign. While the location of the roadwork is accurate, it's very hard to tell what all the route shields and squiggly lines are for when you're driving - I didn't even try. Also, US 64 goes west on US 412 and OK 51 follows it the whole way. I guess the sign manufacturer didn't have any Oklahoma route shields.


WB signage starting at Exit 228, with a rare sighting of the old state highway circle after almost all the rest have been replaced. I-44 is ultimately to be widened to six lanes through Tulsa from this original, pre-Interstate system freeway.


Lewis Ave. SB at I-44 Exit 227. I threw in state-name shield closeups just in case my fanbase so desires.


The next set of WB signs, up to Exit 235, and a similar orange sign. It's more urgent in this direction, because at this time the WB side of I-244 was closed through the construction area. But now the EB side is closed, and they don't have to change the sign, so what do I know? The awfully ugly I-244 exit sign is not just special due to the incorrect font, incorrect specs, too-small letter size, and US 412 shield stretched from a narrower shield. No, it features the rarity of a 3-digit Interstate shield squished to 2di width for the I-44 shield. It's almost always the opposite that takes place. I could gripe that the historic US 66 shield is inaccurate as well...


EB button copy.

OK 167 SB at I-44 Exit 240.


The eastern I-44/OK 66 junction, Exit 241, is being rebuilt right now, seemingly to have OK 66 EB be a right exit instead of a left exit. It's possible, based on what I see, that the rebuild may maintain a left exit but tie the frontage road in better. Those ideas are not mutually exclusive, either. One more idea that may just be a pipe dream in my head is to restore a connection from OK 66 WB and Catoosa to I-44 EB. The story I need to tell is that, as you see in the middle photos, Exit 241 is a double exit, even though the second exit is a continuation of the roadway. The road bearing to the left that looks much wider than it needs to be in the third photo, and the large striped gore area on the right side of the ramp that mysteriously leads nowhere, is a remnant of when this was the I-44 EB mainline. It did continue straight from the first wye as well, but not as I-44, just OK 33 out toward Cherokee Tpk. Because it hasn't been too long since I-44 was rerouted straight into the new Creek Tpk., the exit signage remains pointing left from former I-44 even though there's no need for it at all. Now it's just a reassurance BGS on an otherwise empty gantry.


The best part of the old alignment is that most of it is still intact across that hillock. Because of I-44, OK 66 WB has an exit gore without exiting followed by an overpass over nothing. If you'd like to see more of the abandoned freeway, click the next line on this page.

Onto abandoned I-44
Onto OK 66 alone
Onto US 412 alone
Back to I-44 main page


Into Missouri on I-44
Exit 107 to US 277 and US 62/277
Exit 107 to US 62 alone
To I-40
Exit 127 to I-235
Exit 127 to US 77
Exit 223A or 236B to I-244
To US 64
To US 75
Exit 235 to former US 66
Back to Oklahoma Roads
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