Oklahoma

Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin (Republican) is replacing five of six Turnpike board members. She said she was pleased to find "so many qualified and dedicated community leaders to serve" on the OTA board.

New board members are:

- Carl Gibson, chief operating officer of Inoveon Corp

- Kenneth Adams, chairman of Adams Investment

- Albert C. Kelly, president and chief executive officer of Spirit Bank

- KTAK Corp owner Kevin Hern and Gene Love, CEO Millennium Solutions Group

Fallin reappointed Democrat-appointee, attorney David Burrage.

A bill is going through the legislature in Oklahoma to add a 20km, 12 mile Gilcrease Expressway western extension in Tulsa to the list of tollroads the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority is authorized to construct.

Oklahoma Turnpike Authority's board today voted to accept a staff recommendation to raise toll rates on the state's ten turnpikes by around 16%. It is the first toll increase since 2001, when car tolls also went up 16% but truck tolls were raised 30%. Today's board decision on toll rates followed a Wilbur Smith Associates "System Rate Review."

Tolls will be increased August 4.

Sticker tags are quietly gaining significant US market share, the latest state toll system to commit to go with stickers being the Kansas Turnpike. The Oklahoma Turnpike is testing them. Kansas is closer to a adopting them and it will be the first fully trip-based or 'ticket' toll system to use sticker tags.

Bill Walder of Sacramento CA is feeling scalped by the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority. He was touring Indian country on the Muskogee Turnpike southeast of Tulsa OK and got lost. At the Webbers Falls mainline plaza at the southern end of the Muskogee pike near I-40 he discovered he'd overshot his turnoff back up the pike. The toll collector collected his $1.25 toll and told him to do a U-turn. He did that and was immediately asked for another $1.25 toll in the other direction!