Skip to main content

Oklahoma interstates and highways designated as Alternative Fuel Corridors

The Oklahoma Federal Highway Administration has designated the I-35, I-40 and I-44 highways as alternative fuel corridors, a special designation aimed at improving the mobility of passenger and commercial vehicles that run on alternative fuels. This new designation means special highway signage indicating the nearest alternative fuelling station will eventually be placed along these highways by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. The federal Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act directed th
November 22, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The Oklahoma 831 Federal Highway Administration has designated the I-35, I-40 and I-44 highways as alternative fuel corridors, a special designation aimed at improving the mobility of passenger and commercial vehicles that run on alternative fuels. This new designation means special highway signage indicating the nearest alternative fuelling station will eventually be placed along these highways by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

The federal Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act directed the FHWA to designate national highway corridors for EV charging, hydrogen, propane and CNG fuelling.

The Association of Central Oklahoma Governments and the Indian Nations Council of Governments partnered with ODOT to nominate several Oklahoma highways as alternative fuel corridors. The FHWA approved I-35, I-40 and I-44 as signage ready natural gas fuel corridors and planned electric vehicle (EV) charging corridors, meaning Oklahoma is making strides in development of its EV infrastructure. Oklahoma is the only state with all of its interstate system designated as signage ready for CNG and is now linked to a national network of alternative fuel corridors via highway connections with Texas and Missouri.

Oklahoma was uniquely qualified to designate natural gas corridors due to the wide availability of CNG fuelling along the state’s interstates and highways, and its central position along major highways that cross the nation from coast to coast and from Mexico to Canada. Oklahoma leads the nation in CNG fuelling stations per capita, with at least one natural gas fuelling station on every 100 miles of interstate highway in the state. Most stations can accommodate both passenger and commercial vehicle fuelling.

While Oklahoma’s electric vehicle charging network is less developed, a diverse group of EV stakeholders including convenience stores, electric utilities, auto dealerships, and local governments is working together to identify and construct strategic locations for high-capacity EV chargers that will ensure border-to-border charging within Oklahoma, and connections to neighbouring states.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Considering accessibility costs little and pays dividends for all travellers
    August 8, 2017
    Catering for those with disabilities can be cost-effective and improve services for all travellers, as David Crawford discovers. Clearer understanding of the economic value of accessible transport is essential if we are to speed up the current slow deployment levels, according to the Paris-based International Transport Forum (ITF), which staged a 2016 round table on the ‘Benefits and Costs of Inclusion in Transport’. It wants to see greater availability of data on levels of actual and unmet demand for acces
  • Terrestrial solution to stellar shortcomings
    December 5, 2013
    Inherent weaknesses in satellite communications are leading several countries to re-evaluate terrestrial-based backup systems. There is a tale frequently told in satellite navigation circles, of how landing systems at Newark Airport were disrupted by a truck driver using GPS jamming equipment as he drove along the New Jersey Turnpike. While there was no threat to flight safety as the interference to GPS reference stations being tested, the story highlights how apparently benign threats have the potential t
  • White lines? Cyclists need more
    August 5, 2020
    Just painting lines on the road isn’t sufficient to persuade most people to cycle – you need to separate them from motor vehicles altogether. David Arminas talks to transportation engineer Tyler Golly about the Covid ‘wake-up call’
  • Illinois investing in smarter highways
    February 11, 2014
    Almost 1,000 highway deaths in Illinois in 2013 and some of the worst interstate traffic congestion in the country has prompted the state to launch a US$45 million trial to investigate whether a blend of technologies can make smarter highways which are safer for drivers and less prone to congestion. Traffic engineers are focusing initially on the Edens Expressway and the northern stretch of US Highway 41 and will begin incorporating a mix of existing and new technology during the next two years, an under