New Timeline Puts Opening Of Gathering Place In Spring/Summer 2018

There's been tremendous progress at Tulsa’s Gathering Place, but there are also some delays that are impacting the pace of construction and the timeline for opening.

The construction delay is primarily because of high water in the Arkansas River.

It affected construction right along the shore, but the work has also been impacted by the heavy downpours - the kind we've have in the last months – which have held up construction inside the park.

So, what the Gathering Place will do now is open the five-acre Chapman Adventure Playground January 1st, 2018; it will open separately from the rest of the park.

5/10/2017 Related Story: Riverside Drive, Gathering Place To Open Spring Or Summer 2018

The Chapman Adventure playground is where all the big wooden playsets are - the large wooden towers, the big paddlefish and big blue herons. That part of The Gathering Place will open in January, specifically for school children to visit on field trips over a couple of months.

That's when Riverside Drive will open to give access to the north side of the park.

Then, when they finish all the of landscaping and tree planting, and finish the buildings, the rest of the Gathering Place will open.

Project Manager Jeff Stava said, "We have 1.2 million shrubs, plants, flowers and everything that needs to be installed, so there's going to be an enormous planting effort, in addition to all of the grasses for all of the lawns."

With the new construction timeline, the Chapman Adventure Playground will open in January for school tours only, and the rest of the Gathering Place will open either in spring or early summer 2018.