“We’re gonna have some pain.”
Residents may be alarmed by how typically City Manager (*97*) Carter makes use of the phrase “pain” when discussing the upcoming large street undertaking deliberate for the Oklahoma 97 hall, the busiest road in Sand Springs.
But Carter hopes residents will deal with a special phrase that begins with the identical letter — progress.
“I kind of tell people euphemistically that 2022 was the year of planning and engineering and 2023 will be the year of construction,” Carter advised the Sand Springs Leader lately.
And he hopes that when it’s all mentioned and performed, residents will be so proud of the progress that they gained’t dwell on the ache.
“We’re excited about this,” he mentioned. “It’s going to mean exciting things for our citizens.”
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The main undertaking that every part else will tie into is a $15 million design of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to widen and rehabilitate Oklahoma 97 from the place it intersects with Second Street north of U.S. 412 operating south underneath the freeway to the place it intersects with the newly opened stretch of Main Street simply north of the Arkansas River.
As a part of the enlargement, the state additionally will exchange the entire visitors lights within the hall, and town is paying additional for the lights to be linked by fiber optic cable, which will enable extra clever, real-time administration of visitors movement and congestion.
ODOT put the undertaking out for bids within the fall, however it garnered no curiosity.
Carter mentioned the undertaking was up in opposition to two others that had been a lot bigger and that since only some corporations are able to such in depth work, the opposite tasks obtained the bids.
ODOT pulled the undertaking again and will put it out for bids once more subsequent month, when the local weather is anticipated to be extra favorable.
Construction ought to begin late this spring or within the early summer time, with the work taking 18 to 24 months.
That’s the place the ache will are available.
But if there’s going to be ache, why not do the entire painful issues on the similar time and get it over with?
That’s town’s considering. Well, that and the truth that by coordinating a few of its personal tasks to happen in tandem with the state work, town can maybe reap some cost-savings that may be reallocated to different wants.
As most native motorists know, a brand new extension of Main Street lately joined up with Oklahoma 97 on the east aspect of the freeway simply north of the Arkansas River Bridge. The timing was no accident.
“We intentionally prioritized that project and pushed it to get it open before the Highway 97 project,” Carter mentioned. “We’re going to have growing pains. It’s going to be tough to get through there. We needed that as a way for people to be able to get around.”
What’s subsequent for that intersection will be a devoted right-turn lane from the freeway’s northbound lanes onto Main Street.
“This project has been on the books for about 15 years,” Carter mentioned. “When it was first envisioned, ODOT said they didn’t think a turn lane was the right idea at the time,” and the undertaking was not authorized.
The present ODOT administration, which Carter mentioned “has been wonderful to work with,” agreed that the flip lane was wanted and mentioned that if town would pay for it, the company would enable it.
Although the long run flip lane is paved at current, it’s not but appropriate for normal visitors.
“We will construct a new turn lane there, and that will help people not have to go down and make a dramatic 90-degree turn like they do now,” Carter mentioned.
He mentioned town moved cash round to expedite development, including that the undertaking needs to be going to bid very quickly, with the start of development hoped for by summer time.
Carter additionally dispelled one rumor concerning the undertaking — that it has something to do with a latest snafu when a practice was stopped for hours on the tracks that cross Oklahoma 97 at that location.
“This is not in relation to the train issue,” he mentioned. “It takes awhile to get stuff like this engineered. We’ve been looking at this and talking about it for six to eight months.
On the opposite side of Oklahoma 97, the city has just recently received permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a road over the levee at the south end of Case Community Park that will exit onto the highway south of Dutch Bros.
The new road will enhance traffic flow into and out of the park during large events such as the Fourth of July fireworks and Boo at Case Park, but a side benefit is that it will provide a bypass to Oklahoma 97 when necessary.
Carter said park patrons should not worry about the road becoming an extension of the highway.
“We’re going to put speed humps. We’re going to do things to mitigate people’s speed,” he mentioned final week throughout his State of the City speech. “It’s not meant to be an expressway through the park.”
Although the levee street, a 2017 general-obligation bond undertaking, was held up for a time by the Army Corps of Engineers, Carter mentioned the corps and Tulsa County District 12 Levee Commissioner Todd Kilpatrick have been usually useful and supportive of the plan.
The undertaking will be put out for bids quickly, with development anticipated to begin someday across the center of the yr, he mentioned.
Carter is worked up about the entire street work, however he factors out that there’s much more to be constructive about.
Although ODOT will restripe Oklahoma 97, different metropolis roads will get a brand new coat of paint, too.
“One of the things we did when I came into office was doubled the budget for lane markings from $50,000 to $100,000,” he mentioned, including that one other striping bundle will be accomplished this yr.
Also, as a part of the work alongside Oklahoma 97, two 96-inch field culverts will be buried alongside the freeway subsequent to Dutch Bros and Chick-fil-A to convey stormwater from Morrow Road by Cox Supersaver and Walmart — an space the place flooding has been a continual downside — to the river.
That, in flip, will enable town to reclaim land within the Sheffield Crossing growth that’s getting used as a detention pond and use it as an alternative for restaurant or retail growth.
Road work and infrastructure enhancements won’t sound thrilling to many individuals, however Carter hopes residents will look previous the ache and the tedium to the chances, such because the financial growth alternatives the tasks would possibly facilitate.
“Highway 97 is the key to attracting a bunch of these things to our city,” he mentioned.
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