Boosting Oklahoma’s Infrastructure

By Rep. John Talley

On Tuesday, I attended an exciting event with Centranet, a subsidiary of Central Rural Electric Cooperative in Oklahoma. Centranet is working with the Sac and Fox Nation to build fiber broadband infrastructure, and their first project focuses on the town of Agra, just south of House District 33.

They began laying the fiber infrastructure on August 9 and the program went live on Tuesday. This is the first time that internet with a speed of 50Gbps has been placed in a rural area in the entire United States. With these updates, Agra went from having limited internet to having among the fastest internet in the world!

We know how essential high-speed broadband is, and Agra has now gained a boost when competing for new businesses and residents with this infrastructure in place. It will be exciting to see this expand into House District 33!

Meanwhile, interim studies are continuing at the State Capitol, and I want to share details about a few particularly interesting studies coming up.

On October 22, the House Appropriations & Budget Subcommittee on Transportation will hold a study on how transportation has been funded in Oklahoma and the U.S. In the study request, the author noted that motor fuel taxes are no longer sufficient given the steady increase in the number of electric vehicles we’ve seen on the roads in recent years.

On October 23, the House Administrative Rules Committee will take a deep dive into the administrative rules process and how it may be improved. This is a complicated and confusing but important process, as admin rules hold the weight of law once approved by the Legislature. I hope the study will identify some areas of improvement to ensure the process is more transparent and efficient moving forward.

That afternoon, the House Alcohol, Tobacco and Controlled Substances Committee will hear an interim study on the accessibility of vapor products to minors. According to TSET, Oklahoma’s youth use vapor products, which contain nicotine, at over double the national rate. By making it harder for children to access these products that are already illegal for them to purchase, we can save them from a lifetime of health concerns.

I also want to share the Oklahoma Dept. of Transportation (ODOT)’s 2025-2032 Construction Work Plan that they just released.

Their eight-year plan utilizes federal funds, along with Rebuilding Oklahoma Access and Driver Safety (ROADS) and Rural Economic Transportation Reliability and Optimization (RETRO) funds.

The investment totals nearly $8.6 billion in projects addressing approximately 3,755 lane miles of roadway. The plan includes repairs to 278 bridges currently at risk of becoming structurally deficient and 954 miles of deficient shoulders on two-lane highways.

In addition, ODOT also finalized the 2025-2028 Asset Preservation Plan, which includes nearly 280 projects with a total investment of $494 million. This plan addresses 89 bridges at risk of becoming structurally deficient and improves 1,964 lane miles of pavement.

An interactive map showing all projects on both plans can be found on the ODOT homepage at www.odot.org, under “Programs and Projects” then “8-Year ODOT Construction Projects.”

As always, please call my office at (405) 557-7304 or email me at [email protected] if there’s anything I can help with. Thank you for the honor of representing House District 33.

Rep. John Talley, a Republican, serves District 33 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which covers Logan and Payne Counties.