Concrete Pouring Begins On Tulsa's IDL Project

By Jeffrey Smith, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- The rebuilding of the Inner Dispersal Loop in downtown Tulsa reached a new milestone Wednesday morning as a construction firm started to pour concrete on a new bridge deck.

Crews are pouring the new deck on one of the bridges on the west leg of the IDL where it crosses over Charles Page Boulevard.

In this phase of the project, all westbound lanes on the north leg and all southbound lanes on the west leg of the IDL have been closed.

The bridge doesn't exactly have a fancy name.

"It's bridge 53 to us," said Jennifer Tyler, Project Manager.

But bridge 53 is special to Project Manager Jennifer Tyler. Of the 22 bridges that need to be stripped down and replaced, it's the first to get new concrete.

"Now the old concrete, the old steel that was in there, that's all been removed and we're replacing it with brand new items," said Jennifer Tyler.

Tyler says it's a small milestone in the lifespan of the two year, $75 million project, the most expensive Department of Transportation project in Tulsa's history.

"Each one that we get done, is closer to getting this whole project complete," said Jennifer Tyler.

The bridge is 1,000 feet long. It's on the west leg of the loop as it crosses over Charles Page Boulevard. The bridge is so long, the concrete will be poured in several phases over the next week. It's the first time fresh concrete has been poured on any IDL bridge in 40 years.

"With this bridge being the southernmost bridge, with access getting to and from bridges, it's the right bridge to start with," said Jennifer Tyler.

The project is right on schedule, but Tyler says drivers still need to be patient, for quite some time.

Charles Page Boulevard will be shut down again on Friday when workers lay down another stretch of concrete. There's still four to five months of work left on the counterclockwise lanes. Then the work will shift to the clockwise lanes. And they'll be closed for about seven months.

The whole project is scheduled to be completed in early 2011, but the contractors will receive bonuses for finishing early.

For more information on the ODOT IDL project, CLICK HERE.