Construction to begin at Memorial interchange

By Kirsten McIntyre, NEWS 9

Officials are trying to turnaround congested traffic at a north Oklahoma City interchange.

Construction is expected to begin next month on turnaround lanes at N Pennsylvania Avenue and Memorial Road. The project will close one lane of Pennsylvania Avenue for at least 8 months.

Melissa Wright is the manager at Children's Orchard a business with a front row seat to the heavy traffic.

"It's always packed," she said. "Christmas is worse. Sometimes you'll wait 15 to 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot."

Shopper Jennifer Miller said the traffic has caused her to take her business elsewhere.

"I avoid it a lot," she said. "I shop at the other target in Edmond or some other places just to keep away from all the other traffic and there's not even that much traffic going on a lot of times, just a lot of traffic."

City engineer Laura Story is responsible for the project. 

"This intersection is very congested," she said. "There's a lot of delay involved and if we install this turnaround, it will help people go to their destination and miss two stoplights."