The House Transportation Committee unanimously passed House Bill 2832, which would create an enhancement project to add multimedia and GIS capabilities to the state’s memorial bridges and highways database.

Representative Burns, the sponsor, said he worked with the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs (ODVA) and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) to create a “military trail of honor” that would let people use a phone app or digital map to access biographies and background information on those commemorated by named bridges and highways. "When you cross these bridges and you're going across the trails of the military honor, they don't pop up and you can click on fallen soldiers throughout the state and it pulls up their background and everything that goes on with it," Burns said.

Burns said the proposal is modeled after an existing “fishing trail” system and would include memorial bridges more broadly, not only military memorials. He estimated a ballpark fiscal need of approximately $500,000 to develop the GIS and app infrastructure; Representative Dobransky confirmed the committee discussion that the expected fiscal impact was around $500,000. Burns said ODOT already maintains spreadsheets and biographies required for memorial namings, and the funding would support moving that content into a public-facing GIS and app.

Representative McCain asked whether the system’s purpose was to increase accessibility and tell the stories of honorees; Burns said that was the goal and that representatives and families typically supply bio information during the ODOT naming process. Representative Newton asked whether the system would include any designated highway or bridge, and Burns replied that it would.

The committee voted 11-0 to advance the bill. The transcript records no specific appropriation mechanism beyond the sponsor's estimate of the project cost and no timeline for procurement or deployment.