 State Highway 7 | ||||
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| Route information | ||||
| Maintained byODOT | ||||
| Length | 150.5 mi[1] (242.2 km) | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end |    I-44 /US 277 /US 281 inLawton | |||
| Major intersections |  US 81 fromMarlow toDuncan I-35 nearDavis US 77 in Davis | |||
| East end |    US 69 /US 75 /SH-3 inAtoka | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Oklahoma | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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State Highway 7 (abbreviatedSH-7) is a 150.5-mile (242.2 km) highway in southernOklahoma. This lengthy highway connects many towns in Oklahoma's "Little Dixie" area. It runs fromInterstate 44 inLawton to U.S.69/US-75 inAtoka.
From its western terminus at the interchange with Interstate 44 and Lee Boulevard inLawton, SH-7 is a multilane highway. It runs due east from Lawton for ten miles (16 km) before intersectingState Highway 65 in the unincorporated community ofPumpkin Center. It continues due east for 14 more miles on a straight stretch of highway only very slight curves, bypassing the town ofCentral High, before meeting theDuncan Bypass in Duncan.
SH-7 overlaps with the Duncan Bypass for 6 miles (9.7 km) throughDuncan, after which the state highway crossesUS-81, and becomes a multilane highway again, though it falls to a two-lane road after a few miles. Next the highway passes through the town ofVelma before meetingState Highway 76 inRatliff City. The southern section ofSH-74, which roughly mirrors SH-76's path, has its southern terminus at SH-7 seven miles (11 km) later, nearTatums.
After crossingInterstate 35, SH-7 becomes a multilane highway once again. Three miles later, it meetsUS-77 nearDavis. On the other side of Davis, SH-7 is the northern terminus ofSH-110, a connector route to the town ofDougherty. Two miles west of Sulphur, the highway connects to the southern terminus of SH-7 Spur which connects to theChickasaw Turnpike, a toll highway toAda. After passing throughSulphur (where it has a brief concurrency withUS-177), SH-7 travels six more miles, where it meetsHighway 1.
For ten miles (16 km), SH-7 and SH-1 overlap, through the town ofMill Creek. This concurrency ends three miles (4.8 km) south of Mill Creek, where it serves the unincorporated community ofReagan and the Slippery Falls Boy Scout Ranch. It shares a one-mile (1.6 km) three-route concurrency withUS-377/SH-99. Thirteen miles east of the concurrency, it serves the town ofWapanucka, Oklahoma, where it intersectsSH-48. Seventeen miles later, it ends at US-75 inAtoka.
SH-7 is a former border to border east–west state highway across southern Oklahoma whose western terminus was at theTexas border west ofHollis and eastern terminus at theArkansas border east ofBroken Bow. SH-7's route was truncated on its eastern and western sections during the 1960s and 1970s as those were concurrent withUS-62 between the Texas border andLawton and withUS-70 between Broken Bow and the Arkansas border.[2] The eastern portion of SH-7 that was concurrent with US-70 between Broken Bow and the Arkansas border was truncated in 1963 to its junction with US-70 in Broken Bow.[3] The western section of SH-7 concurrent with US-62 from Lawton to the Texas border was truncated in 1970,[4] when the highway's western terminus was pushed back to the intersection of Cache Road (US-62) and Sheridan Road in Lawton, and a few miles further back in 2003 to its current terminus at Interstate 44 in east Lawton.[5]
Along still-intact sections of SH-7, major route changes through the years include a relocation inDuncan during the early 1950s[citation needed], when the original route along Main Street through the downtown area was moved south of the business district along Bois D'Arc Avenue from US-81 eastward to tie in with the original Main Street route on Duncan's east side, which became SH-7 Alternate and now designated as SH-7 Business. In 1969, the main Bois D'Arc Avenue alignment in Duncan was relocated slightly to the south and the rerouting continued for some 20 miles (32 km) from the SH-7/SH-7 Business junction toVelma on a new and straighter alignment (including both multi-lane divided highway and two-lane roadway) that bypassed the old SH-7 alignment through the oil fields of eastern Stephens County along with the town of Velma.[6] In the 1980s, the new SH-7 was extended east of Velma past the small community of County Line on the Stephens–Carter county line to west ofRatliff City in Carter County.[7][8]
By 1985, the eastern terminus of SH-7 was pushed back to its intersection with SH-3 and US-69/75 inAtoka when SH-7 was again truncated and lost its concurrency with SH-3 from Atoka to Broken Bow.[7]
SH-7 has two spur routes. One of these routes bear the number "7" with a letter suffix; the other is aspecial route.
 State Highway 7D | |
|---|---|
| Location | Bromide |
| Length | 3.50 mi[9] (5.63 km) |
SH-7D is a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) spur to the town ofBromide.
 State Highway 7 Spur | |
|---|---|
| Location | Murray County |
| Length | 4 mi[10] (6.4 km) |
| Existed | August 1, 2011–present |
SH-7 Spur is a four-mile (6.4 km) spur in Murray County. It begins at SH-7 west of Sulphur, heading northeast, to end at adiamond interchange with US-177. The road continues east as theChickasaw Turnpike.[10]
SH-7 Spur was built by theOklahoma Turnpike Authority (OTA) as the westernmost segment of the Chickasaw Turnpike, which opened on September 1, 1991.[11] It was transferred from OTA to ODOT on August 1, 2011, receiving the SH-7 Spur designation and becoming a free road. It was the first segment of turnpike in Oklahoma to be transferred to ODOT. Transferring the turnpike was considered an inexpensive way to solve the problem of excessive truck traffic in Sulphur. At the time of the transfer, the interchange at the eastern terminus only allowed access from the westbound turnpike to US-177, and from US-177 to the eastbound turnpike.[12] ODOT had expanded the interchange to a full interchange by 2013.[10]
| County | Location | mi[1] | km | Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Comanche | Lawton | 0.0 | 0.0 | I-44 /US 277 /US 281 | Western terminus |
| Pumpkin Center | 9.4 | 15.1 |  SH-65 | ||
| Stephens | Marlow–Duncan line | 22.5 | 36.2 | Duncan Bypass | Northern terminus of Duncan Bypass; northern end of concurrency |
| 30.4 | 48.9 | US 81 | Southern terminus of Duncan Bypass; southern end of concurrency | ||
| Ratliff City | 58.1 | 93.5 |  SH-76 | ||
| Module:Jctint/USA warning: Unused argument(s): cspan | |||||
| | 65.2 | 104.9 |  SH-74 | Southern terminus of SH-74 | |
| Murray | | 79.3 | 127.6 | I-35 | |
| Davis | 82.1 | 132.1 | US 77 | Western end of US-77 concurrency | |
| 82.5 | 132.8 | US 77 | Eastern end of US-77 concurrency | ||
| 84.2 | 135.5 |  SH-110 | Northern terminus of SH-110 | ||
| Sulphur | 88.7 | 142.7 |  SH-7 Spur | Southern terminus of SH-7 Spur | |
| 91.2 | 146.8 |  US 177 | |||
| 91.5 | 147.3 | US 177 | |||
| Scullin | 98.2 | 158.0 |  SH-1 | Northern end of SH-1 concurrency | |
| Johnston | | 109.2 | 175.7 | SH-1 | Southern end of SH-1 concurrency |
| | 119.8 | 192.8 |   US 377 /SH-99 | Southern end of US-377/SH-99 concurrency | |
| | 120.8 | 194.4 | US 377 / SH-99 | Northern end of US-377/SH-99 concurrency | |
| | 125.7 | 202.3 |  SH-7D | Southern terminus of SH-7D | |
| Wapanucka | 133.5 | 214.8 |  SH-48 | ||
| Atoka | Atoka | 150.5 | 242.2 | US 69 /US 75 /SH-3 | Eastern terminus |
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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