Tulsa's A Gathering Place Construction Update

There's still a lot more work to be done at the Gathering Place, but park representatives say the Arkansas River has been key for construction so far.

Day by day, the trucks roll on and construction continues at the Gathering Place for Tulsa.

Tons of dirt has been moved around the park since construction began in 2014. About 300 construction workers are constantly working, hauling in dirt and building up the 100 acres along the Arkansas River in Tulsa.

One day, the large space of brown dirt will be transformed into something park representative Jeff Stava says will be great for families and Tulsa.

"I think a lot of citizens in Tulsa are just excited about what this park will mean and how it engages with the Arkansas River and realizing the dream of, kind of, a river-front park," he said.

A Gathering Place For Tulsa

Over the last few months, trucks have hauled in tons of dirt - transforming it into walls and a 50-foot mound.

One day it will be Swing Hill.

It'll also connect the mound to the pedestrian bridge that will run over Riverside Drive.

All of the dirt used in the project essentially comes from the Arkansas River, and that saves time and money because it takes about 8,000 regular-sized dump trucks to fill the lot.

To manage where the dirt goes, the sites are done in zones.

Crews still need about 12,000 more dump trucks worth of dirt to finish everything; but, even now, Stava says the image of what the park will be is coming together.

"You can really begin to see all the features and how they interconnect together,” Stava said. “And, to me, that's the exciting part of the construction project because now you can start to see how much space is between features and just how big the size is."

Stava said the park could be the tipping point for more engagement, activity and economic growth along the river.

Crews will need about eight to ten feet of dirt to bury the tunnels - before they do that, they have to waterproof them.

The project is still expected to be finished by the end of 2017.