Yes, Tulsa needs I-244 to help move traffic across town. The Crosstown expressway handles a lot of traffic every day. But the leg in West Tulsa seems like it could be done away with. West Tulsa is cut to pieces by highways and thus cannot get any growth momentum going. I-44, US-75 are bad enough. But the leg of I-244 that goes from 75 to 44 is just redundant. It needlessly cuts off neighborhoods and takes up a ton of space that would be valueable if a big highway was not there.
When I think about it, why do we have I-244 in the first place? Every stretch of it aside from this redundant leg in West Tulsa, is already another highway. US 412, then US 75, then the 2 mile stretch in question is the only standalone part.
So the only purpose of 244 is that we get federal monies to maintain what would have been 412 and 75?
So maybe if we tore down that leg of 244, we could add lanes to 44 and 75 for the 2 miles or so that would be taking on that little bit of extra traffic, and calling it "244" once it breaks off of 44, keeping the federal money.
If we got rid of I-244 altogether, would we be able to re-allocate 244's money into 44, or would we just lose it altogether (Which may be an incentive to keep 244 even if it means nothing).
The reason I'm jumping to such crazy questions is that I think there is great development potential where the highway currently sits. If you got rid of it, you would free up a bunch of land. You could re-do Southwest Boulevard into a nice roadway with lots of development potential. 41st street could be re-done into a major thoroughfare from Brookside to Prattville. Right now the 41st street bridge idea is hampered by the clusterf*** that consists of I-244, Southwest Boulevard, 25th West Avenue, 41st street, and train tracks all intersecting at one insane spot.
In other words, I think getting rid of that highway leg could do more for West Tulsa than anything short of tearing down the refineries and building a Riverside West. It would join the existing neighborhoods in addition to allowing for SW Blvd development and 41st street expansion.
Here is a giant image (sorry for the size but I liked this zoom level)