Oklahoma County commissioners on Tuesday approved two engineering and environmental items aimed at advancing public projects into construction-ready status.

County staff said the board would pay $71,400 from a CBRI account to start environmental work on a Covell Road project so the county can position itself for construction funding under the CER program. "ODOT will do these, at their cost, but they won't do them on the timetable that lets us position ourselves for the construction money," a county engineer said during the meeting. "So I've advised that we should advance these ourselves so we can position ourselves for the construction money." The board voted to approve the expenditure.

Separately, the board approved a $13,154 change order with Standard Engineering related to the Behavioral Care Center project to perform a risk assessment on contaminants found on site. The engineering presenter described the work as a necessary step after the discovery of contaminants, saying: "This is...a change order with Standard Engineering to do some, risk assessment on some of the contaminants we're finding on-site. $13,154." The motion to approve that change order was seconded and carried.

Commissioners and staff framed the two approvals as project-advancement measures: the Covell Road environmental work would be funded from a CBRI account rather than Highway Cash, and the Behavioral Care Center change order is intended to assess on-site risks to inform remediation and project scheduling. There were no recorded objections at the meeting.

Both items were presented under engineering/project development; staff indicated advancing the environmental work would improve the county’s competitiveness for larger construction funding in a later CER round.