User:Scott5114/SandboxC

History

 * Proposals as early as 1940
 * Privately-funded "airline highway" floated to Gov Roy J Turner on Feb 21 '47
 * "I don't believe it is right to build a king's highway in a free country." —Streeter Speakman, the chairman of the Oklahoma House roads committee, 1947
 * "Oklahomans will be shackled with tolls for the rest of their lives." —Sen Boyd Cowden, Chandler
 * Opposed by small towns fearing it would divert US 66 traffic and harm them
 * Also opposed as benefiting the Daily Oklahoman and Tulsa World, operating delivery trucks
 * "a speedway for E.K. Gaylord's express" — Sen. Everett Collins of
 * Legis authorized as a toll road in 1947
 * Turner signs act April 30 '47
 * Legis names after Turner, to commemorate and assign blame
 * Construction cost: $38 million
 * Opened May 16, 1953
 * Legislators promised 75% of work to be done by Oklahomans
 * Financed by bonds
 * Unpopular at time on loan market
 * New Jersey Tpk bonds sparked interest
 * "The turnpike issued $31 million in bonds in November 1950, and $7 million were sold in June 1952. "
 * Lawmakers did not understand bond system
 * Sen Joe Bailey Cobb, Tishomingo: 170 years to pay off?
 * Promises made that as soon as bonds were paid off the road would become free
 * Cross-pledging made legal in 1953, passed vote of the people the following year (Jan. 26 1954, SQ 359 and 360
 * SH-33 interchange not original, added to 5 year plan in 1989

Services

 * Full-service McDonald's restaurant and EZ-GO gas station in the center of the roadway near Stroud.
 * Concession areas along the Turner Turnpike were originally Howard Johnson's restaurants and full-service Phillips 66 stations, but changed to their current configurations in the 1980s as was the case with concession areas along other Oklahoma turnpikes.
 * Law enforcement along the Will Rogers Turnpike is provided by Oklahoma Highway Patrol Troop YB, a special troop assigned to the turnpike.