Downed power poles causing major traffic headaches in northwest Oklahoma City

by: Katelyn Ogle/KFOR

Posted: Jul 12, 2023 / 05:45 PM CDT

Updated: Jul 12, 2023 / 04:26 PM CDT

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – OG&E said traffic at Pennsylvania and 122nd might be a headache for a little while longer as crews work tirelessly to put up power poles knocked down during Tuesday morning’s storms.

“Girl, I’m trying to go home! But I can’t, they got all this blocked off. I’ve been driving around for 30 minutes,” said Aalayah Tatiana, a driver caught off guard by the construction. “There’s traffic all up at the lights from everybody getting lost.”

News 4 saw a carousel of cars in the parking lot of a couple of businesses that were still without power.

NW 122nd was blocked off from Western to Penn on Wednesday. Penn was also blocked off from Memorial to NW 122nd.

“I didn’t realize there was going to be so much construction,” said Robert, another driver. “Maybe I can get there in another hour!”

OG&E said during Tuesday morning’s storms, dozens of metal and wooden power poles were brought to the ground. More than 1,000 linemen, working 16-hour shifts, have been working to set them back up.

“You can see the structures, these steel poles, they’re very massive,” said Nicole Rhodes, with OG&E. “When we’re going to stand them back up we’ve got to lay them out across the road and it would block both lanes of traffic.”

OG&E said they worked fast to turn the power back on for residential customers who need air conditioning during this excessive heat.

Now, only a few businesses are in the dark, but only for a little longer.

“We’re hoping to have these roads open sometime late Thursday to early Friday morning,” said Rhodes. “As we get to a point where we can even open half of it we’ll work with the city to get half of it open.”

OG&E said they understand this is a very busy area, but that makes this kind of work all the more dangerous for linemen and drivers.

“I guess there’s nothing else you can do because construction is going to go on for awhile,” said Robert.

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Downed power poles causing major traffic headaches in northwest Oklahoma City