TRAFFIC concerns at Edison High School

A short stretch of roadwork poses a big problem for school administrators at Tulsaâ€™s Edison High School. 41st Street is down to two lanes - and school starts next week. <br><br>KOTVâ€™s Emory Bryan

Thursday, August 9th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A short stretch of roadwork poses a big problem for school administrators at Tulsaâ€™s Edison High School. 41st Street is down to two lanes - and school starts next week.

KOTVâ€™s Emory Bryan says the barrels were moved in last week for a patching and sidewalk project on 41st - between Harvard and Lewis - traffic is down to two lanes and the school is worried about having buses and teenaged drivers - try to make it through. Edison High School is a construction zone, with traffic down to two lanes, barrels everywhere and construction equipment sharing the road with cars.

The start of school has the principal worried about the traffic. Principal Steve Mayfield, "It will be a problem for us if it remains two lanes because of the buses turning out cause a bus needs such a wide path to get back on to the street, I'll have to wait until Wednesday morning to see the effects, but you can imagine, we have 26 buses and 1700 students." It might still be two lanes at the start of school - but the contractor hopes to finish patching the road before then. They're pouring new sidewalks too, but will work in front of the school first, with hopes of finishing before students start classes.

The school is also building - and will close the front parking lot - where buses once stopped. They'll be moved to the back, and the school is directing traffic clockwise around the back of the school, out to 41st street. They've added a new exit to handle the cars. Mayfield: "There will be no traffic in the front of the building, we've built a new road in the back of the school, for student drop off and pick up but we anticipate problems there until people learn the traffic flow and so on."