TULSA, Okla. — City of Tulsa engineers are constantly looking at ways to improve roads and keep up with the growth of the city, especially in areas that see a lot of traffic.
One of those areas is in midtown near the city's first food hall, Mother Road Market, on Lewis Avenue and 11th Street.
"We did a multimodal study that showed the pedestrian movement will do nothing but grow with what's planned out there," says Paul Zachary, the City's Director of Engineering Services Department.
He explains the increase in foot traffic led the team to design a median on both sides of the railroad tracks on Lewis and 12th Place, which narrows the four-lane street to make it safer for pedestrians.
Other changes coming to the section of road are new crosswalks, parallel parking on either side of Lewis and speed limit reduction from 35 miles per hour to 25.
"It's kind of like what we have on Brookside. We're going to make sure that the public is aware that there are pedestrians in the area," Zachary said.
Just a few streets down at the intersection of 15th and Lewis, the city is adding left turning lanes. The goal here again is to make it safer for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers alike.
"As long as traffic's moving, that's the most important thing of course it'll slow things down, but I think that's changes we just need to get used to until they get it all fixed up," says Spencer Woodford, a Tulsa resident who works near the construction.
The road project is scheduled to be complete in April.
- Here's the project map provided by the City of Tulsa:
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