Improve Our Tulsa 3

[SXSW]

The election is August 8th.  Thoughts on the renewal of this package?  I personally would like to see the public safety center remain downtown but fear they will move it to the State Farm complex at 129th E Ave. I also want to see movement on the full $300M renovation/expansion of the PAC, does that $79.7M include design fees for that portion?

$772M total cost

Streets & Transportation
- Inflation-Adjustment for Previously Approved Street Projects: $93.8M
- Citywide Routine & Preventative Maintenance: $68M
- Street Widening: $30M
- Bridge Replacement: $24M
- Matching Funds: $21.6M
- Traffic Engineering: $19.3M
- ADA: $10M
- Sidewalks: $4.8M
- Construction Completion Incentives: $4M
- Engineering, Inspection & Testing: $3M
- Alleys: $1.2M

City Facilities
- Safety Training Center Driving Track: $4.4M
- BOK Center: $6.4M
- Convention Center: $18.8M
- Tulsa PAC: $79.7M
- Parks: $31.9M
- Public Safety Center: $47.5M
- Gilcrease Museum: $10M
- Zink Lake Infrastructure: $5M
- Tulsa Zoo: $25.7M
- Citywide Facility Maintenance: $20M

Capital Equipment
- Tulsa Fire Dept Fleet: $58.5M
- Other Vehicles/Maintenance/IT: $94.3M

Tulsa Housing Initiative
- Housing Incentives: $75M
- ARPA: $5M
- DDRF: $8.1M
- HOME-ARP: $5M
- Affordable Housing Trust Fund: $8.4M
- Opioid Settlement Funds: $2.7M
- Neighborhood Revitalization: $15M

[shavethewhales]

The investment in affordable housing and a low-barrier shelter is awesome. Lots of money for the PAC too - might be mostly for the ADA improvements. The new public safety center will be a major impactful change for downtown - would be great to get the police station/holding cells away from the convention center and then activate that block more. A lot of the rest of the facilities improvements are just roof replacements - necessary, but expensive and not noticeable.

Having to spend over 90 million on inflation adjustments sucks big time.

[swake]

I'd like to see the public safety center be located across from the jail on the site of the closed dairy.

[SXSW]

I'd like to see the public safety center be located across from the jail on the site of the closed dairy.

That's actually a perfect spot and it's currently for sale.  Can the City purchase and renovate it into the TPD/TFD offices for $47.5M?  Keeping those jobs downtown should be a priority

[heironymouspasparagus]

Wonder if they will try to make the roads radioactive like Florida is doing? 

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Wonder if they will try to make the roads radioactive like Florida is doing?  

They aren't. The bill wants a study to look at using phosphogypsum, a byproduct of making fertilizer using phosphate rock dissolved in sulfuric acid to create phosphoric acid that is used in fertilizer. This process has been around since the early 1800's. The phosphogypsum contains uranium and it's decay byproduct is radium 226 more commonly know as Radon.

Even if they state passed it, it would still have to meet Federal EPA rules.

In fertilizer, phosphorus is important for plants to grow strong roots and for crops to be productive. Florida has been an important source since the 1800s; today, the EPA notes, "Florida alone accounts for approximately 80 percent of the current capacity, making it the world's largest phosphate producing area."

When phosphate rock is dissolved in sulfuric acid to make phosphoric acid for fertilizer and a few other uses, phosphogypsum is what's left over.

The commonly used production process, which dates to the 1840s, is not very efficient. For every ton of phosphoric acid produced, more than 5 tons of phosphogypsum waste is generated.

Florida's prominent role means the state also has massive waste sites called phosphogypsum stacks, or "gypstacks." Such stacks can be very large — spanning up to 800 acres and about 200 feet in height. They've been linked to serious problems over the years, due to sinkholes and other breaches.

HB 1191 would compel the Florida Transportation Department to study using phosphogypsum in paving projects, calling for "demonstration projects using phosphogypsum in road construction aggregate material to determine its feasibility as a paving material."

If it's approved, phosphogypsum would join pavement aggregates such as crushed stone, gravel and sand. In recent years, the Federal Highway Administration says, industrial byproducts and reclaimed materials have also been used as aggregates.

The bill sets a deadline of April 1, 2024, giving the transportation agency less than a year to complete its work and make a recommendation. The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature approved the measure by a wide margin.

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/09/1174789570/florida-roads-radioactive-paving-phosphogypsum

[shavethewhales]

^It's still a bad idea. https://www.epa.gov/radtown/radioactive-material-fertilizer-production#:~:text=Phosphogypsum%2C%20a%20waste%20product%20from,elements%20uranium%2C%20thorium%20and%20radium.

The waste that is left behind is called phosphogypsum. Most of the naturally-occurring uranium, thorium and radium found in phosphate rock ends up in this waste. Uranium and thorium decay to radium and radium decays to radon, a radioactive gas. Because the wastes are concentrated, phosphogypsum is more radioactive than the original phosphate rock.

Florida is literally trying to sweep it under the rug because they have so much of it lying around.

OK has plenty of old lead mining chat piles they could do the same with, I suppose.   

[dbacksfan 2.0]

^It's still a bad idea. https://www.epa.gov/radtown/radioactive-material-fertilizer-production#:~:text=Phosphogypsum%2C%20a%20waste%20product%20from,elements%20uranium%2C%20thorium%20and%20radium.

Florida is literally trying to sweep it under the rug because they have so much of it lying around.

OK has plenty of old lead mining chat piles they could do the same with, I suppose.   

Yeah, I can see that. The chat piles in Picher seem like a great choice for part of the aggregate for making concrete, it's the particulate that would be generated in the process that create the biggest hazard. I would think that the radioactivity from the phosphogypsum while low level would probably be stopped by the concrete, it's the process that would create the health hazard.

[heironymouspasparagus]

They aren't. The bill wants a study to look at using phosphogypsum, a byproduct of making fertilizer using phosphate rock dissolved in sulfuric acid to create phosphoric acid that is used in fertilizer. This process has been around since the early 1800's. The phosphogypsum contains uranium and it's decay byproduct is radium 226 more commonly know as Radon.

They want to.  This is the first step of trying to.

I got an education about this from one of the kids this week who is a nuclear physicist.  She told me it could be done somewhat innocuously and exposure levels, while above background, would still be fairly low.   So it almost certainly wouldn't be as bad as some of the other stupid Stitt Florida is doing, but it still isn't very clever.  


And it IS still a big enough thing that there are sequester sites where huge piles of the stuff are building up, theoretically keeping humans from exposure.  And likely to be at least a couple levels worse than the lead mine piles in Picher/Cardon.

Maybe we could work with them to combine the two and have lead based radiation exposure on the roads!

With consistent, even mixing, each bit of radioactivity would be surrounded by lead shielding!  And all the lead would be isolated from the environment by glow in the dark gypsum, preventing kids from chewing on it, due to an unpalatable appearance!   And reducing the need for so many of those unsightly street light poles!

(Anyone notice just the tiniest bit of hyperbole here...?)

[patric]

With consistent, even mixing, each bit of radioactivity would be surrounded by lead shielding!  And all the lead would be isolated from the environment by glow in the dark gypsum, preventing kids from chewing on it, due to an unpalatable appearance!   And reducing the need for so many of those unsightly street light poles!
(Anyone notice just the tiniest bit of hyperbole here...?)

Couldn't resist...

https://www.pilotonline.com/resizer/06Swj0oXG41oV_fLdX-0-G4fdJY=/800x0/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-tronc.s3.amazonaws.com/public/FXHT3HVXEZCMDMP6ZLJYKFS2JM.jpg

[heironymouspasparagus]

Couldn't resist,,,

I want that for my driveway!!!  At this age, who cares about some radiation!   I had a couple years exposure to asbestos dust and didn't get the pretty colors!

[Markk]

Can anyone point me somewhere I can see what road widening projects are included in this project?

[Weatherdemon]

The BOK Center needed a better video board the day it opened and it shocks me it still has that same one.
A big, beautiful arena with a bargain basement video board.
Are there any funds here or elsewhere to replace it?

[patric]

Not everyone is in love with the proposed $814 million Improve Our Tulsa capital improvements package.
Certainly not District 5 City Councilor Grant Miller, and certainly not local writer and author Michael Bates.

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/government-politics/dissenting-voices-get-their-say-on-proposed-improve-our-tulsa-3-captital-improvments-package/article_fe371dcc-2cb4-11ee-8c1c-9b71ee9866d4.html

I cant help but wonder if voters would actually approve multi-million dollar items on police wish lists if they were stand-alone items and not bundled in with other "improvements."

[swake]

Not everyone is in love with the proposed $814 million Improve Our Tulsa capital improvements package.
Certainly not District 5 City Councilor Grant Miller, and certainly not local writer and author Michael Bates.

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/government-politics/dissenting-voices-get-their-say-on-proposed-improve-our-tulsa-3-captital-improvments-package/article_fe371dcc-2cb4-11ee-8c1c-9b71ee9866d4.html

I cant help but wonder if voters would actually approve multi-million dollar items on police wish lists if they were stand-alone items and not bundled in with other "improvements."

Michael Bates is a broken record.