on this beautiful, beautiful Oklahoma Thursday. Over the course of my time as governor, you've heard me say over and over again. That Oklahoma can be will be and should be a top 10 state. This isn't just a slogan. This is This is a vision that helps form and ah, road map and guide every one of our state agencies on how we can improve state government and change the future for all four million Oklahomans today. I'm thrilled to announce that a major goal was achieved by our team at the Oklahoma Department of Transportation. That moves Oklahoma into a top 10 in a national ranking system. As you know, addressing structurally deficient bridges has been a huge focus for our state. Oklahoma has historically been at the bottom of nationwide rankings for the quality of our bridges, but we spent over a decade reversing that course to get to the top of this list. As we can see, even from looking at the boom of the downtown over my shoulder here, a quality infrastructure system plays a key role in driving economic development, growth and opportunity. With this being said, I'm excited to direct your attention to the board. As we announce the new rankings by the Federal Highway Administration for inspections through the end of 2019 I am proud to say that the new, um, the new rankings Oklahoma has just landed number nine in the country. This is a major win for our state and a testament to the leadership from Secretary Gats and his team at o dot our legislators here today in many Oklahomans who came before us to make this goal a reality just to put this in perspective. In 4 4004 there were 1168 structurally deficient highway bridges. Now they're currently 86 structurally deficient bridges with plans to address each and every one of them. The vision and leadership shown by Secretary Gats and his predecessors to focus on making our bridges some of the best in the nation is a remarkable accomplishment. Oklahoman should be really proud to see the work zones and their tax dollars have paid off and help make us a national leader. Enbridge, safety on the state highway system, having a strong and stay for safe transportation infrastructure, keeps businesses running and attracts new ones It makes us a state that visitors want to drive to, not drive by, and it keeps our communities connected together. This marks one of the first of our large scale state initiatives to get into the top 10 nationally, and I hope this momentum keeps us as we continue to show the nation in the world that Oklahoma is a significant contender for business and commerce. With that being said, I'd like to invite Secretary Gats, our fearless leader at the Department of Transportation, to the podium to give us an update. Secretary gats Thank you, Governor. I'd start by saying, over the course of my 30 year career and transportation, I've watched the department go from managing our bridge infrastructure with Band AIDS and Belen Wire to be in top 10 in the country. That's a remarkable achievement and a testament to the efforts of everybody involved. In 2004 nearly 20% of our highway bridges were structurally deficient, making us as the governor pointed out, one of the worst in the nation, thanks to the leadership at that time, including transportation icons like Secretary Neil McCaleb and especially Secretary of Transportation Gary Ridley, who put a laser focus on this problem. We started the difficult conversations with the public and the Legislature about the bleak condition of our bridge infrastructure and the desperate need for investment with new funding mechanisms. We started chipping away at the backlog, and we started in with full bridge replacements and heavy rehabilitations. In the years since, drivers in every area of the state have seen orange barrels going up and this work got underway. Our industry partners, construction crews, traffic control companies, designers and others have steadily been the boots on the ground doing what it takes to get these projects done. Innaro dot crews, who have worked tirelessly to keep those bridges maintained until projects could get underway, have been an integral part of getting to this point. This has been an unprecedented climb from the bottom to the top of the Federal Highway Administration rankings, and our counterparts in other states have certainly taken notice of us becoming a nationwide leader. Enbridge efforts every governor and legislative leadership has stayed committed to improving our transportation infrastructure so far, and the benefits of this or evidence governors like eating Henry Fallon and now our infrastructure leader in chief Governor Kevin Stitch are focused on strategy, performance measures and transparency. Governor, we so much appreciate your efforts and leadership around making Oklahoma's infrastructure top 10 in all categories. It includes the efforts of speakers of the House of Representatives and names like Todd Hyatt, Chris Binge in our Own current transportation commissioner T. W. Shannon, Jeff Hickman and now Speaker of the House Charles McCall, appropriations chairman Kevin Wallace. And transportation advocates like Mark Liotta, who was instrumental in putting a focus on this problem, and Jim Newport, our current Transportation Committee chair who's got deep roots in transportation representive Avery Fricks. And on the Senate side, President Pro TEM is like Brian Bingaman, Marc Short Schultz and now Greg Treat, along with Appropriations Chair Roger Thompson and Great Transportation Committee chairs like Gary Stanislaski, Mark Allen and now our current and great transportation partner, Rob Stand Ridge Chairman. If you wouldn't mind, I'd invite you to the podium to have an opportunity to make a few comments secretary and thank you, Governor. Appreciate your work on this, I tell you, is a lifelong Oklahoma, and there's a few things that I remember negative. You know, we think about that. And we think of the Murrah bombing. Everybody remembers kind of where they were, what they were doing. Of course, 9 11 But you follow bridge collapses. One where many Oklahoma's gonna remember what they were doing. And where were they at where they were at the time. And for my moment. Forward with the leadership of Gary Ridley. And you know what, McCaleb governors, like our great governor governors did have move this ball forward to where Today we can announce to you that we're not having fallen bridges, that there were no top 10 in the nation. That's a big, big move. And I applaud those that got us here. Our current leadership secretary gats and others. So thank you for being here. And congratulations, Governor. Great job. Great work, Secretary.