TULSA, OK (KJRH) — As Improve Our Tulsa reaches its final stage, city leaders are proposing hundreds of millions of dollars in road improvement. If passed, streets and transportation throughout Tulsa would receive $427 million-for improvements, with nearly $360 million going to street maintenance, rehabilitation, and widening.
Some improvements are to main roads, but some are to neighborhoods, like Michael Rollins' area on 75th off Mingo.
"The last update here has been almost 15 years ago," Rollins said, "and also a lot of traffic bleeds off 71st street onto 75th.”
The roads in yellow are the proposed projects in Improve Our Tulsa for districts 5, 6, and 7. The maps also include projects done in 2008 and 2013 that engineers want to keep up on. @KJRH2HD pic.twitter.com/K4qd3wa921
— Chris DiMaria (@chris_DiMaria) July 25, 2019
Thursday night's Improve Our Tulsa town hall meeting was focused on projects in Tulsa districts 5, 6, and 7, with town halls on Monday and Tuesday focusing on the other six districts.
And while not every road that needs attention throughout Tulsa will get it, experts say there’s a method to deciding where the money will go.
"We look at the deterioration and life cycle of all the streets across the city of Tulsa," said Tulsa City Engineer Paul Zachary, "because all the streets behave differently."
District 7 Councilor Lori Decter Wright says street widening on 91st Street in her district near Memorial is another important project, because of traffic and the issues it creates.
"We just want to make sure that as we are growing, we’re keeping up the pace, and make sure our roads are wide enough to accommodate that growth,” Councilor Wright said.
The traffic not only backs up cars past shops and development, but the lack of shoulders also blocks first responders from being able to negotiate the intersection. Councilor Wright says that costs them precious time as traffic has nowhere to go, especially with hospitals just a short ways up 91st Street.
The next scheduled town hall meetings are on Monday and Tuesday, July 29 and 30, at Memorial High School and Booker T. Washington High School, respectively.
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