By Robert Barron, Staff Writer

Four-laning U.S. 412 to Woodward and improving U.S. 81 north of Enid are the biggest highway needs discussed Tuesday during a meeting of Enid officials and Oklahoma Department of Transporta-tion.

Craig Moody, of ODOT’s planning and research division, said the department updates its 20-year plan every five years and covers all facets of transportation, public travel and moving people and goods in the state.

“It helps steer the department where it needs to go,” Moody said.

Former state Rep. Curt Roggow, now a consultant, said a “super two-lane,” a two-lane highway with wide shoulders, would be sufficient for U.S. 81 north of Enid due to the cost of building highways. Moody said he is hearing a lot of calls for high-speed rail service.

ODOT also is dedicated to preserving the existing highway system, he said.

A new factor on the horizon is air quality standards for towns with populations of 10,000 and more. Moody said Environmental Protec-tion Agency wants to in-crease clean air standards. City Commissioner Daron Rudy said the problems in rural Oklahoma are not due to cars but to blowing dirt.

“No matter what you do to cars, it won’t help us, “ he said.

Moody said cities will have to find a way to deal with the standards when they are set.

“The air standards quality will be a big deal. Cities will have to go green,” he said.

Among the strategies ODOT listed are improving bicycle and pedestrian routes; expanding passenger rail service; expanding the availability of van pools, buses and park-and-ride lots; coordinating rural, tribal and urban transit; and increasing communications between local transportation systems, rail and airports.

ODOT has not had a long-range planning meeting in Enid for many years, and Moody said it was the best meeting he has attended. All of Enid’s city commissioners were present, along with City Manager Eric Benson, engineering director Robert Hitt and public transportation superintendent Kim Watkins, along with state Reps. Mike Jackson and John Enns.

There is $8 billion in federal stimulus money available for improvement and expansion of high-speed rail service. Okla-homa has requested $2 billion, which will build the rail system and purchase two trains, Moody said.

Representatives at a Ponca City meeting recently strongly supported extending Amtrak’s Heartland Flyer to Ponca City. The train currently operates from Oklahoma City to Fort Worth, Texas, and back.

Funding is the major issue in every project discussed, Moody said. He said new means of funding need to be found for ODOT to continue present programs and develop into the future.

Rudy asked about how things got done at ODOT because it seems so difficult to make things happen. Moody said money is a need and programs are done on a need basis. Each of the eight highway districts is funded nearly the same, he said, but there has been talk of making Oklahoma City and Tulsa into a separate highway district.

Benson said most of the tax money seems to go in and around Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and he wondered if it is at the expense of other parts of the state.

“It’s critical. We need to be in this discussion of the future need of the state,” Benson said after the meeting. “I’ve been here five years and this is the first time Enid has been included.”

Roggow also questioned Moody about the process for obtaining industrial access funds. Sometimes the process is not difficult and sometimes it is, he said.