Ground Broken For New City Of Tulsa Operations, Maintenance, Engineering Center

Calling it ‘Progress as Promised', city of Tulsa leaders turned dirt Wednesday on a new operations, maintenance and engineering center for the city.

The new facility is going up just west of the Mohawk Water Treatment plant at 4015 North Harvard Avenue.

It will be named after former Tulsa Public Works Director Charles Hardt, who retired in 2011.

The center will include a nearly 29,000-square-foot main building and an 8,400-square-foot materials shed. 

Hardt says this upgrade is decades overdue and will benefit not just city employees, but all Tulsans.

"This is really going to help our transportation group and have the facilities to help them provide better quality of life for citizens by increasing the efficiency of our transportation system," said Charles Hardt.

The $5 million project is being funded with the 2006 third penny sales tax.  Officials say the building should be finished in June of 2014.