Tonight’s Town hall meeting with regard to the Yale toll bridge was very interesting. I had not previously paid much attention to this issue, but after hearing about this meeting on TulsaTopics, I decided to attend.
Here is an excerpt from their agenda
We are not against the bridge for the safety and development of Bixby, nor are we against progress for the betterment of our community. We want a RESPONSIBLE approach for a bridge in South Tulsa
The bridge as it is currently planned would continue Yale across the river to Yale place on the Bixby side. It would be a privately funded, public improvement project, preformed through the County.
The neighborhood groups, who have rallied against this bridge, had some very valid points.
1. This bridge will send A LOT of traffic though a residential neighborhood.
2. There are several safety problems with this bridge including an elementary school on Yale.
3. The streets on the Tulsa side are already in desperate need of widening and resurfacing. They are not up to the challenge of handling the additional load.
They had several questions to which they have not had answers, or have not had satisfactory answers.
Q. Is there a plan to create noise abatement for those closest to the bridge?
A. No.
Q. Have current plans considered safety at the nearby elementary school?
A. We don’t think there is a problem.
Q. Yale is in dire need of widening already, is there a plan in place to widen if this bridge is built?
A. It is funded but not planed for, not for at least 10 years.
The homeowners listed some of the safety concerns more specifically.
1. There will be three routes to the bridge on the Tulsa side, two of which will go past school zones. Some estimates put the flow of traffic down Yale at 5000 new cars down one of them, with that number growing drastically with in a few years. What about the kids who currently walk to school? What about the parents who currently drop off their kids by stopping on Yale to let them out? What about the lack of event parking at the school that currently forces people to park on Yale?
2. What of the impact to the brand new fire station being built on 111th. If traffic is backed up or stopped because of the lacking infrastructure to support this bridge, how will response times be impacted?
3. The current plan has some of the traffic diverted to directly onto a two lane portion of Riverside drive. The locals call it “Dead mans curve.” People have died on this part of the road, what will be done to improve Riverside?
What about the infrastructure problems? One presenter said, “Growth is good, it raises property values, but growth can’t happen with out proper infrastructure...you need only drive a few blocks down Yale with out wondering if you car will need re-alignment.” This portion of Yale has a lot of pot holes, and there is of course the widening problem. Yale is not planed for improvements for at least 10 years. He pointed out that the current attitude seems to be that growth happens first and infrastructure happens later. He wanted to know how they expected to dump the amount of traffic expected on Yale with out improvements.
The group then listed some alternate routs for the bridge that they felt would solve all their concerns. Some of these routes seemed to make a lot more sense but have not been received warmly for a couple of reasons, one of them, seemingly because none of the alternates were part of some 30 year old plan, put in place before there was a school or so much residential development.
After hearing all this I would agree with the home owners in this area. This bridge should not be built until all of these very valid concerns and questions are addressed. The sentiment that was echoed so often during the night was from Bill Christiansen, “What’s the hurry?” He came out in opposition to the bridge, and called the City and County to perform an independent study for safety, infrastructure and possible alternant routs.
A tentative plan would bring a core group of neighborhood leaders into the process. This will hopefully reach that goal of addressing these concerns if not answering some of their most sought after questions. We will see what happens.
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TulsaBixbyToll BridgeArkansas RiverBill ChristiansenTulsa County
