Cleveland County
Cleveland County, seat Norman, had 295,528 residents in 2020, the third-largest county in Oklahoma. It runs south of Oklahoma City along I-35 and holds Norman and Moore.
The county in brief
- Seat
- Norman.
- Area
- 558 square miles, 19 of them water.
- Highways
- I-35, I-44, US 62 and 77, and State Highways 9, 37, 39 and 77H.
- Neighbours
- Oklahoma County (north), Pottawatomie (east), McClain (southwest) and Canadian (northwest).
Where the pallets are
Interstate 35 runs the length of the county, and US 77 rides with it from Norman's Tecumseh Road area north through Moore. State Highway 9 crosses the Canadian River with I-35 at Norman, and State Highway 37 meets it at Moore. HVAC manufacturing and testing sit in Norman, retail and distribution in Moore: heavy units mean built-to-spec skids, and the leftover pile is broken stock. See HVAC and equipment.
The county touches Oklahoma City in the north, so a dock near the boundary may belong with an Oklahoma City district. Give the cross-street nearest your dock and it will not matter.
Norman
Norman, the county seat, had 128,026 residents in 2020 and sits 20 miles south of Oklahoma City on I-35. The University of Oklahoma employs the most people, but the freight story is HVAC.
Johnson Controls' Norman plant, 900,000 square feet after a roughly 400,000-square-foot expansion in April 2019, makes and tests rooftop HVAC units, and the Chamber lists The Climate Control Group among the city's manufacturers with more than 1,000 employees. Rooftop units are tall, wide and heavy, and ship on new or combo builds with extra deck boards; a worn 48x40 will not carry them. The same plants shed a back lot of broken skids and crating: new pallets cover the build and pallet pickup the leftover.
Moore
Moore, population 62,793 in 2020, sits on I-35 between Oklahoma City and Norman. It is as much a commuter town as a freight stop.
Retail, building supply and small distribution make up the freight, so piles come from store back lots, contractor yards and the odd food plant; see stores and small business. Moore took an F5 tornado on 3 May 1999 and an EF5 on 20 May 2013. After storms, contractors receive rebuilding materials on pallets and need them hauled quickly, and pallets soaked or broken by debris are cores at best. The guide to moisture and mould says when a wet stack is beyond saving.