TULSA, Okla. — The U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg came to Tulsa to meet with Mayor G.T. Bynum and state leaders about infrastructure projects the current administration's bipartisan infrastructure law is funding.
The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded six different grants to the State of Oklahoma for infrastructure projects, totaling nearly $50 million dollars. One of those projects is happening in Tulsa and another in the city of Wagoner.
The $10 million grant for Tulsa's project aims to increase pedestrian accessibility to areas of West Tulsa that don't have a sidewalk.
"I think it's a real good idea," Colleen Mann, a resident along west 51st Street said. She said her neighborhood could use the help.
The project will reconstruct a one-mile stretch of West 51st Street, between South Union and South Elwood, near where Mann lives. The project will build a sidewalk, a new pedestrian bridge, and a new connection to the Arkansas River Trail.
"We have children and young adults that like to ride their bicycles and skateboard and walk and we even have people in the neighborhood that train dogs and have better facilities and access to them with this project,” Mann said.
The money will also help build two bridges on U.S. 75 and two ramp bridges over West 51st Street. The new construction is not good news for every neighbor.
“They start projects, and they do not finish them. Tulsa, all of Tulsa, every road you drive down, there’s construction," Terrie Rochester, another resident who also lives along W. 51st Street said.
Mann said she hopes the improvements are faster and said no matter what, they are necessary.
“It is not safe for the people that have to walk to the grocery store, or walk to the bus stop, or walk to school, so the sidewalks would be a tremendous help as well," Mann said.
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