The SH-9 West Bridge design celebrates the agricultural presence in Oklahoma by creating giant, life-like, bas-relief ears of corn spanning the parapet and piers, with wind current emanating from the corn and flowing out into the wing walls. The swirling wing pattern signifies the irrigated running water needed to feed this essential crop. Iconography pulling from the wind current and agriculture themes makes its way to the slope walls as well, which are treated with an overlapping spiral texture and stained in earth tones reminiscent of the local landscape.
Each pier bullnose is capped with an icon derived from Chickasaw pictograms, specifically the logo of the Chickasaw Cultural Center. There is a “spiral,” blowing like the wind, representing the cycle of life; the “sacred eye,” suggesting an omnipotent creator known as Aba’ Binni’li’; and the “sun,” signifying renewed life as the sun rises every day and hope for the light of tomorrow when the sun sets.
The SH-9 West Bridge is part of an eight bridge Aesthetic Master Design Plan CDR developed for the I-35 Corridor in Norman, Oklahoma. The design for each bridge finds its inspiration in either the history, architectural, flora or fauna, or the industry of this region.
See the associated highway walls.
