Oklahoma Is Now Building Texas Style Highways Across the State

It's no secret that Oklahoma and the Lone Star State share somewhat of a sibling rivalry type of relationship. Whether it be sports, attractions, riverwalks, or roads, it always boils down to competition.

The Sooner State has been on an infrastructure kick for the last twenty years, ever since the I-40 bridge collapse, and while most bridges have been rebuilt, the focus is now on roads and highways.

There have always been two different methods of highly traveled road building in Oklahoma--concrete and asphalt. The concrete roads last a very long time, but they're super expensive to build. Asphalt is cheap and easily recyclable, but it doesn't stand up to the Oklahoma summer heat for very long.

It appears the Oklahoma DOT is adopting the Texas method of building two-lane highways that have always had people talking about how nice TX roads are... The old tar and gravel method.

After surfacing the existing road, they literally spray a thick layer of tar down on the road, and then a truck pulls up and dumps an even layer of gravel on top.

The tar holds the gravel and makes the roadbed water-resistant, the gravel becomes the new durable road surface.

While it may seem like a cheap trick to save taxpayer dollars, this method has proven it's reliability across Texas for decades.

It also makes for easy repairs, since it's just tar and gravel, fixing a section of road only takes days instead of the months we're used to in Oklahoma.

There is a tradeoff to a smoother ride though, and it's the noise. It's just the nature of gravel. It's loud... and it'll probably accelerate the wearing of your tires if you travel these small highways a lot, but that's life I suppose. I know I'd rather buy tires more often than have our normal rough roads destroy my vehicle altogether.

No news on whether this is a road test (which is pretty common) or if this is the newly adopted Oklahoma two-lane standard. Time will tell.