MURRAY COUNTY, OK - The $6.5 million road and bridge reconstruction project for Primrose Lane, or U.S. Highway 77, between Sulphur and Davis is one Murray County commissioners say is vital to the area, and one they've been waiting more than five years to start.

If you've ever used the 5.5 mile stretch of Primrose Lane to bypass the city of Davis, you're not alone. Murray County District 3 Commissioner Darrell Hudson says people often use Primrose to avoid trains that can stop traffic in Davis.

"In the City of Davis the railroad switches throughout the day. It seems like every day of the week and blocks traffic. Emergency vehicles can't get through, so they have to use this overhead bridge to get around and get to the Interstate," Hudson says.

The project, funded by the County Improvements for Roads and Bridges Fund, will repave and widen the roads to two 11-foot-wide lanes with 2-feet wide shoulders, and will stabilize two overhead bridges to support more weight.

"We understand that there are rumors going around that it's going to be a designated truck route, and that's not the case. We don't want heavy truck traffic on any of our roads if we can keep from it because that deteriorates the road itself," says Murray County District 1 Commissioner Bill Lance.

Lance says the new improvements are meant to make travel on the road both easier and safer, and says although the money isn't coming from stimulus funding, he hopes the project will help stimulate the local economy.

"Rock crushers a lot of people who make asphalt, people that manufacture things that go into these road projects, it will help provide more jobs and help stimulate the economy here in Murray County more as well," he says.

Lance says over all the construction should take about nine months to complete and hopes the improvements will last for years to come.

"Our jobs are going to be to maintain them after they are there, and so anytime you can provide a safer mode of transportation it makes you feel good about your job and the things that you're doing," Lance says.

Lance says several engineers have presented bids to the commissioners for the construction project, which will be the largest projected funded through the County Improvements Fund. He says the project is scheduled to start this time next year.