Rendering courtesy of Acre Development Partners
This summer, Edmond Urbanist highlighted The Oaks at Covell, a coming multi-family residential development near Sooner Rd. and E. Covell Rd. The development by Acre Development Partners, LLC, will feature 102 townhouse units. Along with the massive new Crest Foods, Showbiz Cinema, SSM Saint Anthony Urgent Care, Integris Health Cross Timbers, and restaurants along the street, it's clear that the I-35 interchange at Covell Rd. is finally becoming the hot spot for development in Edmond that it's long been primed to be.
But more than that, I-35 and Covell is - in reality - the northern most point of the Oklahoma City metro area that looks...metropolitan.
Consider this - you're traveling south on I-35 from Wichita, Kansas. Once you leave the south Wichita suburbs of Haysville, Derby, and Mulvane, you'll pass only a few small towns in northern Oklahoma with interstate access like Braman, Blackwell, Tonkawa, and Perry. The Cowboy Travel Plaza & Smokin' Okie on SH-51 is heavily advertised and is always lit up like Christmas, but it's too far west of Stillwater to bring significant development beyond being a roadside oasis. Now, SH-33 in Guthrie has several hotels and restaurants, but then there's another 15-mile stretch of heavily wooded interstate frontage until you reach Edmond. It's at Covell where travelers will first begin to see suburban-type development from the interstate.
Now, if we were in Texas, there would likely be continuous frontage roads and numerous on- and off-ramps along I-35 from Waterloo Rd. all the way through Edmond, and they would be stacked with fast food joints, gas stations, apartments, and maybe even a Buccee's.
However, the infrastructure, topography, and land use in this part of Oklahoma County has limited development to small pockets around interstate interchanges at Waterloo Rd. and Covell Rd., before I-35 finally transitions at US-77/SH-66/2nd St. to a wide urban freeway with frontage roads and interchanges every mile.
Will it grow?
Yes. Maybe. Possibly.
The City of Edmond has long envisioned Covell Rd. as a four-lane parkway corridor along the city's north side between Western Ave. and I-35. A significant amount of city CIP funding and federal funding has gone into reconstruction and modernization of Covell between Santa Fe Ave. and Broadway, and between the Fairfax Estates neighborhood (east of Coltrane) and I-35. The Edmond On The GO bond proposal includes major work on Covell at Western, Santa Fe, and Air Depot.
The Oklahoma Department of Transportation's Eight-Year Construction Work Plan does include significant expansion of I-35 in northern Oklahoma County, including:
Reconstruction of I-35 at Waterloo Rd. as a Diverging Diamong Interchage. This location sits outside of Edmond city limits.
Widening of I-35 to six lanes between Waterloo Rd. and US-77/SH-66/2nd St.
Reconstruction of the I-35 interchange at Danforth Rd. to add northbound on- and off-ramps
Any new access points at Coffee Creek Rd. or Sorghum Mill Rd. would require a significant capital commitment from the City of Edmond before ODOT would even consider a future construction project. In the past decade, the metro area cities of El Reno, Moore, and Yukon have added new interstate interchanges in cooperation with ODOT.
The densely wooded right-of-way with steep embankments along I-35 make development of frontage roads and new on/off ramps difficult.
It's also important to point out that traffic counts - and especially commercial truck traffic volumes - are significiantly lower on I-35 north of Edmond than to the south.
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