page_title: Creek Turnpike
section_title: Environmental concerns
hierarchical_section_title: Creek Turnpike / History / Environmental concerns
caption_attribution_description: Least Tern Sternula antillarum chicks day two, Quintana Beach, Texas.
context_page_description: The Creek Turnpike, also designated State Highway 364, is a 33.22-mile-long freeway-standard toll road that lies entirely in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The turnpike forms a partial beltway around the south and east sides of Tulsa, Oklahoma's second largest city. The Creek Turnpike's western terminus is at the Turner Turnpike in Sapulpa, while its northeastern terminus is at the Will Rogers Turnpike in Fair Oaks; both ends of the Creek Turnpike connect with Interstate 44. Along the way, the highway passes through the cities of Sapulpa, Jenks, Tulsa, and Broken Arrow, and the counties of Creek, Tulsa, Wagoner and Rogers. The road is maintained by the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, except for a brief free section shared with U.S. Route 64 and US-169. This free section is maintained by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.
  The first section of the Creek Turnpike, from US-75 in Jenks to US-64/US-169 in Tulsa, was first authorized in 1987, with construction beginning in 1989. The turnpike's construction was controversial; homeowners along the route of the highway formed a group called Tulsans Against Turnpikes to fight the highway in both the courtroom and the media.
context_section_description: Initial turnpike plans included environmental mitigation features to reduce the amount of disruption the finished road would cause to the local environment. In the Jenks area, OTA planned to replace destroyed wetlands with new wetlands of equal or greater size. Landscapers were expected to plant two trees for every one removed to build the road. In March 1990, these plans were augmented to provide wetlands mitigation at a rate of three to one, for a total of 45 acres (18 ha) of new wetlands. Additionally, 25 acres (10 ha) of pasture would be allowed to revert to its natural state to create "dedicated natural succession areas."
  On July 21, 1989, OTA approved a contract to transplant approximately 290 live trees in the path of the turnpike to locations along the edge of the right-of-way. There, the trees would serve as a barrier between the road and the surrounding properties, masking the road from view and muffling the sounds of traffic. A Norman landscaping firm performed the work, which included thirty months of maintenance, for a total cost of $288.50 per tree (equivalent to $519 in 2018 dollars).
  The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) objected to the construction of the Creek Turnpike in a letter dated January 30, 1990. FEMA felt that documentation on how the project would affect the floodplains in the area was lacking, preventing local authorities from requesting updates to floodplain maps, which were necessary to keep their communities enrolled in flood insurance programs. OTA's attorney stated that the requisite information had been provided to local officials, and it was not OTA's responsibility to ensure that they forwarded the information on to FEMA.
  A Tulsa-area supervisor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) commented upon environmental issues pertaining to the Creek Turnpike in a 19-page letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dated February 9, 1990. USACE was responsible for issuing three essential permits (which OTA had applied for on November 6, 1989) that would allow construction to continue, and was required to consider input from the service. In the letter, supervisor Stephen Forsythe recommended that the permits be denied and further studies conducted into alternate routes for the turnpike and the environmental impact on roads that connected to the turnpike. However, USACE only had the authority to review the impacts the Creek Turnpike itself made on wetland areas. Governor Bellmon publicly criticized Forsythe for focusing on concerns beyond USACE's jurisdiction. Bellmon's Transportation Secretary, Neal McCaleb, publicly stated "I think [Forsythe] is out of line[...] and would say so to Mr. Forsythe." Bellmon and McCaleb discussed the letter in a private meeting with the Secretary of the Interior, Manuel Lujan, although Lujan neither commented nor committed to any action regarding the letter. In response to Bellmon's criticism of the letter, Tulsans Against Turnpikes issued a public statement, saying "Running behind closed political doors like that demonstrates the governor is an environmental hypocrite," contrasting his statements with a letter he wrote assuring a constituent in Jenks that the project would be "the most aesthetically pleasing and environmentally sound facility that can be constructed".
  In a letter sent to OTA in March 1990, USACE identified issues with the Creek Turnpike project, such as modifications to Polecat Creek's channel, impacts on the Arkansas River floodplain and levee system near Jenks, and loss of 14.8 acres (6.0 ha) of wetlands. In two other letters sent in May 1990, USACE requested alterations to the project, detailing further concerns about destruction of a unique type of wetland near the turnpike's planned intersection with Yale Avenue, OTA's plan to temporarily drain Mill Creek Bridge Pond, and emergency access to homes only accessible by crossing the pond on a wooden bridge. USACE warned that, should the changes the corps requested not be made, the turnpike plans may violate federal law, which would result in USACE withholding the necessary permit
caption: Presence of the endangered interior least tern near the path of the Creek Turnpike caused worries its construction would have to be delayed.
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