National Report Slams Tulsa Roads

[DowntownNow]

Reported by News Channel 2

Reported by: Keidron Dotson
Email: dotson@kjrh.com
Last Update: 5/08 8:41 pm

The official word is out.

Tulsa area roads are among the roughest in the nation.

A national transportation study says poor road conditions cost drivers around $700 dollars a year.

Experts say some of the money is spent on extra gas for detours.

Other expenses are for tires that often end up beaten and battered from potholes on the street.

Brook Nelson can relate.

She spent more than a thousand dollars last year on tires alone.

Today she's back at the repair shop.

"I think in a matter of one month's time i went through five tires in my car and i had to replace every single one of my tires there was no just patching the hole," said Nelson

Engineers with Oklahoma Department of Transportation are working to keep Tulsa from topping the list.

Beginning with a resurfacing project on the 40 year old inner dispersal loop.

"Below the pavement there could be a bad section of the base that could allow the pavement to crack and breakout," said Tulsa engineer Bruce Arnold.

Experts say over time all roads fall victim to heavy vehicles and constant daily use.

But they admit the study is an instant wake up call.

Oklahoma is slated to get over 400 million dollars in road repairs as part of the reinvestment and recovery act.

We recently voted to pass a $451 million streets package that essentially patches and maintains the existing street index over the next 5 years. 

The Tulsa Council had originally prepared and voted on a $2 billion, 12 year streets package that afforded for replacement and repaving, increasing the street index overall. 

At the time, opponents to this street package said it was too expensive.  The $2billion package was to equate to approximately a $75 per year increase (per $100,000 value) in property taxes to fund the proposal.  A home costing $500,000 would pay approximately $375/year. 

Now we have a report that states the average Tulsan will spend approximately $700/year on additional maintenance, tires, and detours/gas as a result of the City's poor streets.

The median home value in Tulsa is approximately $150,000 (depending on which source you look at)....that's roughly $112.50/year based on the median home value for Tulsa versus the reported average of $700.00/year spent by drivers due to Tulsa road conditions...thats a net savings of approximately $587.50/year having voted and approved the $2billion package.

I'm thinking Tulsa went the wrong way on this.  With the delay in construction start on the $451 million plan, the roads continue to deteriorate and the street index continues to fall.  Prices in labor and materials will likely increase as a result of the Stimulus expenditures on infrastructure improvements.  What exactly will $451 million buy us if we started today and is it enough? 

As the $451 million package simply maintains the existing street index, it does nothing to inspect and replace roads all around Tulsa that were designed and built so long ago that today's traffic use, vehicle weight increases and such will simply allow them to continue to fail without true replacement.

As an example, I offer the following.  This was found in the Brady Heights neighborhood while I was driving through.  It was a street cut for what looked like a sewer line.  This arterial was heavily travelled and was on a significant slope yet the subsurface aggregate was approximately 4" think, with 3 layers of 1.5" asphalt poured on top...I can only assume this was after repeated repaving of the original street that was about 6" thick when first laid down.  It doesnt take having an engineering degree to realize that a design of this nature can not withstand today's traffic patterns and vehicle weight, particularly of trash trucks, construction vehicles and even the larger SUVs.  The roads there were in shambles and yet, the $451 million package will only maintain their current level with patching and filling. 



Until Tulsa realizes the problem isnt just in the surface of the streets but the underlying bases and such, Tulsa roads will continue to crumble and fall apart.  This will require significant investment...something $451 million simply will not do.

[TheArtist]

People dont give a crap about anything you just said. They will say there is already enough money, taxes are too high and its the liberals just wanting more, its just being spent unwisely and is not going to the right thing or is wasted.

[guido911]

People dont give a crap about anything you just said. They will say there is already enough money, taxes are too high and its the liberals just wanting more, its just being spent unwisely and is not going to the right thing or is wasted.

Yeah, what artist said.

[FOTD]

Will you drive down Utica between 36th and 41st and let me know what you see?

The road was just laid. It looks terrible. Maybe it just needs to be cured.

Took forever. The reconstruction of Lewis looks to be a nightmare coming at us.

Bet it takes 10 years to get our streets back to easy transportation. Traffic increases along Harvard and Peoria coupled with the I44 rerouting will make going North and South a miserable experience for the next 5 years if not longer.

All those projects stopped due to our audit of COT PWD were costly in time. But much worse, the projects infrastructure also suffer from interruption. But that's our children's future issue. The damaged goods will not be obvious for a while.

If I hear any more whining from Southies then we'll get out the pitchforks. At least they have the Creek.

Anyway, is it this demon or is it the COT that made Utica look like Podunk?

[YoungTulsan]

They still have one layer of asphault to add to Utica I believe.