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For many years, a young engineer at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation would physically turn around traffic signs before and after every Oklahoma State University football game to help ensure safe traffic flow.
Sometimes, traffic jams extended almost to Stillwater on Highway 51, so the young engineering mind of Gary Ridley recommended a two-lane ramp onto I-35 to increase public safety. Eventually, Ridley rose to become the Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation. Last month, ODOT recognized his innovative solution and decades of transportation achievements by naming the intersection of I-35 and Highway 51 “The Honorable Secretary Gary M. Ridley Memorial Interchange.”
– Brenda Jones Barwick, APR, Jones PR
