The bridge near Haikey Creek Park on 121st and Garnett has been a problem for quite some time.
"They kind of fix it, and then it will settle, and it'll just go back and forth," Broken Arrow resident Richard Woodard said. "Now it's gotten to the point where it's just insane. I obviously try to avoid it by driving around it."
The problem appears to be coming to an end. Beginning Monday, August 4, Bixby is closing the bridge down for a major overhaul.
"Instead of going through that long judicial process of ownership of the bridge, we realized that wasn't what's best for our citizens," Madeline Luster with the city said. "We wanted to move forward."
Despite an ongoing lawsuit with Tulsa County over who actually owns the bridge, the project will move forward. Luster says it will take 75 days, and cost around $400,000. The infrastructure of the bridge won't change, but they will completely resurface the road.
"We found it the best use of taxpayer dollars," Luster said. "We also felt it was the most efficient use of how long it was going to last."
It's a move that has people in the area relieved. "Well, it's about time, you know?" Woodard said. "Because it's causing problems for older cars and stuff. It's got to be hard for everything that's going over the top of it. Now if they get it fixed, we'll be good in a few months."
The city acknowledged the time of year isn't the most ideal, with school about to start, but the bridge needs to be permanently addressed.
"Unfortunately, there's no great time to shut down a road," Luster said. "And we wanted to get this done as quickly as possible; however, we didn't want to speed up the engineering part of this process."
Regardless of the timing, drivers understand the time is now.
"There's really no easy way to do it," Woodard said. "I'm just glad they're going to close it and fix it."
Luster says this fix should mean the bridge won't need additional surface work for 30 years or more. She also encourages residents to sign up for project update alerts through their Nixle alert system. You can find that information here.
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