TULSA – Ever wonder what’s behind those gates surrounding the A Gathering Place construction?
Monday, 2 Works for You was given a tour through the grounds to see how the progress is going.
A drive through the 100 acres - soon to be "A Gathering Place for Tulsa" - still shows a lot of dirt. Countless construction vehicles continue to shovel, push and move the earth. But, a closer look reveals the inner-workings of some of the park's most unique features.
Land bump outs near the Zinc Dam, and land bridges up and over Riverside Drive.
“Each land bridge is 300 feet long, or 100 yards, so about the length of a football field, and then they're bermed on each side. So, when you're in the park, you won't see or hear the road at all,” said Jeff Stava.
The water infrastructure is almost complete, and manhole covers stand like towers, 25-feet above the ground, showing where the new surface will be. The park itself will have a 52-foot elevation change from its highest point down to the river.
“ … and so now we're just in the process of really i think the most exciting part which is everything's going to start coming up out of the ground - 42 - so, you're going to start to see a lot of progress over the next 3 to six months.”
With the waters receding from heavy rain, crews are working in the Arkansas River, building nine acres of land bump outs that will have trails near the waters-edge, lookout points and a skate park.
“I think it'll be exciting for the community to start to see major features of the park start to come into focus.”
Stava says construction is on-schedule, and they expect the first major phase of the park to be complete by late 2017.
Construction on Riverside Drive is also underway. They say the road should be open before the park, in the spring of 2017.
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