NE Rogers Lane Finally Getting Fixed: Paving Phase Kicks Off Next Week

If you’ve been avoiding NE Rogers Lane on Lawton’s east side, there’s light at the end of the tunnel—literally. After two weeks of drainage repairs that started when the City of Lawton discovered a major failure on June 25, crews are wrapping up their underground work and preparing to rebuild the road itself.

Here’s the timeline: The Stormwater Maintenance crews are on track to finish their portion by July 10. That means the Streets Division can begin the next phase during the week of July 13, which includes compacting the roadway, rebuilding the base, and finally—thank goodness—paving it. Weather permitting, of course. In this business, rain is always the wildcard.

What exactly went down underground? Crews excavated the damaged drainage structure, removed the failed pipe, and installed new drainage pipe. They’ve already placed the initial base course, and next they’ll add flowable fill around both ends of the new pipe, install riprap to reduce erosion, and clean the drainage channel to restore proper water flow. It’s the kind of infrastructure work that doesn’t make headlines until it fails, but when it does, it shuts down an entire corridor.

The City of Lawton closed NE Rogers Lane back on June 25 and posted notification signs at Flowermound Road and Gore Boulevard, Flowermound Road and Cache Road, and along NE Rogers Lane from Interstate 44 to the closure. Additional barricades went up at NW Brentwood on June 26. All utility locates were completed by June 29, and drainage work began on June 30.

The inconvenience has been real for east side residents, and the city has acknowledged that. But with the drainage work nearly done and paving set to begin in the next week or so, normal traffic flow should return soon. Just don’t plan a shortcut through that area just yet.