TULSA, Okla. — A south Tulsa construction project is getting closer to being complete, but it won't be done by the originally scheduled completion date.
The stretch of road on Yale between 81st and 91st was slated to be finished this fall.
The construction manager, Elliott Stiles, said the project is progressing nicely, but they did have to move the completion timeline from fall this year to April next year.
Stiles explained that the weather has caused some slowdowns in addition to utility work taking longer than expected.
However, it's important to note how big of an undertaking this project is.
Crew are taking Yale between 81st and 91st from two lanes to six lanes, and that's not all they are doing.
This stretch of road has been known to be dangerous for how curvy and hilly it is.
So, in addition to widening the road, they are working to straighten it out and make it flatter.
One of the biggest things Stiles said they are doing with the project is putting in retaining walls.
"Some of these retaining walls the entire structure itself from the top of the wall to the bottom of the peers can be as high as 85 feet," he explained. "A lot of that is underground. It's work you will never get to see when we are done. We had to drill through a lot of hard rock and some of that has taken quite a bit of time and a lot of effort to be able to pull that out."
Stiles said this project is the last puzzle piece to connecting I-44 to the Creek Turnpike with full lane capacity.
"We expect when we finish up this project next April that we should see a lot of improvement in the traffic, a lot of traffic safety improvements as well, as we cut down a lot of the hills and reduced a lot of the curves to improve sight distance," he said.
He shared that there are anywhere between 50 and 75 people working on the project at a time.
Those crews are working to wrap up phase three, which means finishing the east side retaining wall and northbound driving lane.
In mid-fall, the goal is to move to phase four, the final phase. That will entail putting in the last two retaining walls on the west side, working on the last of the driving lanes, and ultimately wrapping up the project.
To put the work into a more understandable progress meter, Stiles said its about 75% complete.
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