TULSA, Okla — The sounds of construction crews echo along East Newton Street in North Tulsa. Crews are tearing up and replacing the street, gutters, and curbs, installing new pipes to replace a 70-year-old water line underneath the street, and putting in new sidewalks.
Bobbi Drew contacted the Problem Solvers about the sidewalks going in on both sides of the street within the city’s right-of-way in front of each home. The neighborhood didn’t have sidewalks before, so homeowners used the space for landscaping, which is now getting removed to make room for the sidewalks.
“It’s very disturbing because they’re taking so much away from the property owners,” Drew said. She’s particularly upset about construction crews slicing through the roots of trees planted in some cases decades ago to install the sidewalks.
“Our storms, you know, they’re pretty strong. These trees don’t have that root system holding them down so much anymore, and I can see them coming down on people’s houses because they’ve cut this side, so it’s going to lean that way, which is property and possibly life damage loss,” she said.
Drew told 2 News that the city hadn’t informed residents adequately about the project before starting.
The city told 2 News that in 2016, it held meetings to gather feedback from the neighborhood about the proposed project and sent out 800 mailers. Respondents expressed strong support for the improvements.
Last October, it held pre-construction meetings and sent out more than 500 mailers letting residents know work was about to begin.
Since the sidewalk portion of the improvements occur within the city’s right-of- way, it can remove landscaping in the way of its construction project.
Click to learn more about this and other Tulsa capital improvement projects.
Contact the Problem Solvers:
- 918-748-1502
- problemsolvers@kjrh.com
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