Yale Avenue widening?

[Ed W]

I attended a "Cycling in the City" panel discussion last night, and was told that one mile of Yale Avenue is to be widened at a cost of $30 million.  If this has been covered elsewhere, please let me know, but if not, do any of you have more information on this?

[Conan71]

Which mile is it, and what would be the point if it's just one mile?

Yale is not exactly a logical conduit for bike transportation.

[BKDotCom]

81st - 91st ?

Odds of a tunnel:  0%
Odds of buying several homes/properties and moving the hill / huge retaining walls:  100%

seems a weird topic for a "cycling in the city" discussion  (edit:  other than I sure would avoid that stretch as it is now - can't imagine the straight and 6-lane version being "bike friendly" either)

[Gaspar]

81st - 91st ?

Odds of a tunnel:  0%
Odds of buying several homes/properties and moving the hill / huge retaining walls:  100%

seems a weird topic for a "cycling in the city" discussion  (edit:  other than I sure would avoid that stretch as it is now - can't imagine the straight and 6-lane version being "bike friendly" either)

There is plenty of space for the widening, so I doubt they will be purchasing property.  The problem is the hill itself.  It is part of a big vein o clay that runs through that part of Tulsa.  They've already drilled several samples and I'm sure they are working on a plan.  I anticipate it will require dropping the roadbed by removing as much earth as possible, therefore decreasing the incline/decline.  this means a roadbed far below the residential above.  Or. . . .they could go cheap and just widen the road and adjust the angle of the curves.  This would mean lots of reapairs in the future and a significant increase in the already high incidence of auto accidents on that road.

It's just a bad hill. 

[sgrizzle]

http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=18911.45

[Red Arrow]

There is plenty of space for the widening, so I doubt they will be purchasing property.  The problem is the hill itself.  It is part of a big vein o clay that runs through that part of Tulsa.  They've already drilled several samples and I'm sure they are working on a plan.  I anticipate it will require dropping the roadbed by removing as much earth as possible, therefore decreasing the incline/decline.  this means a roadbed far below the residential above.  Or. . . .they could go cheap and just widen the road and adjust the angle of the curves.  This would mean lots of reapairs in the future and a significant increase in the already high incidence of auto accidents on that road.

It's just a bad hill. 

It used to be a fun hill in a sport(y) car before all those houses were built.

[Gaspar]

It used to be a fun hill in a sport(y) car before all those houses were built.

It still is fun for those who know how to drive.  For those that dont, not so much.  The ditch at the bottom gets lots of visitors.

[Red Arrow]

It still is fun for those who know how to drive.  For those that dont, not so much.  The ditch at the bottom gets lots of visitors.

Whenever I have been there lately, there are too many cars in front of me creeping along.  They would have to speed up to be going slow.

I assume you are talking about the ditch at the last left turn southbound.  I think the house there used to get occasional visitors of the 4 wheel variety.

[Ed W]

seems a weird topic for a "cycling in the city" discussion

The context was that $30 million would pay for umpteen gazillion miles of bike lanes, more umpteen gazillion miles of shared use lanes, bazillion miles of bike paths, and so forth and so on.  There was no mention of a dime to be spent on enforcing traffic laws.

Bike lanes do have their benefits...for consultants, planners, politicians, bureaucrats, and construction companies, but as for cyclists...not so much.

[Townsend]

There is a large drainage project taking place North of 101st and many marking flags planted in the area.  I don't know if that's a stand-alone job or not.