Riverside Drive's Restoration

The south end extension on Riverside Drive just opened but changes are coming soon to the north end. The city plans to overhaul Riverside north of Houston Avenue.<br><br>It's the bumpiest, lumpiest

Wednesday, September 8th 1999, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

The south end extension on Riverside Drive just opened but changes are coming soon to the north end. The city plans to overhaul Riverside north of Houston Avenue.

It's the bumpiest, lumpiest section of Riverside. Asphalt patches stretch across the roadway, showing years of pothole repairs. Water stands on the road because of poor drainage. But soon this section of Riverside will be dug out and replaced. "We're planning to rebuild the pavement, rebuild the curbs, and do a little storm water work in that area so it drains better than in the past," said lead transportation engineer Bill Cyganovich. "And just bring the pavement back up to where it should be."

The section set for repair is from Southwest Boulevard, south to Houston.
The repairs will cost $500,000. It comes after a major new section of Riverside opened last week, extending the roadway south of 71st Street. Up north, the project will begin over the winter and will take six months.

The work on the stretch of the road, around the 1300 block of south Riverside, will last for several years. The city of Tulsa can't even begin planning new projects for this section of the roadway until money comes in from the 2001 sales tax. The long established plan is for Riverside to be a parkway with six lanes. The city engineer says that plan, if it's ever acted on, is probably a decade away. "We do have a functional plan to widen Riverside between 56th South and Houston, but there has been no funding," said Cyganovich.

The coming changes to Riverside won't affect the Riverparks and won't require any new land. It's a small part of the larger overall project to level out the lumps and take out the bumps.