Work to begin soon on the US 75 and 71st Street interchange

While southeast Tulsa has exploded with development, in southwest Tulsa, things have been quiet, but somebody just woke up the sleeping giant. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Steve Berg says this spring,

Friday, February 18th 2005, 11:23 am

By: News On 6

While southeast Tulsa has exploded with development, in southwest Tulsa, things have been quiet, but somebody just woke up the sleeping giant.

News on 6 reporter Steve Berg says this spring, there's going to close off US highway 75 and 71st Street and put in a whole new bridge and interchange.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation has drawings of the plans for the intersection. The east side doesn't change much. But on the west side, there will be a cloverleaf to funnel highway traffic to the east toward Tulsa. And then another ramp to take traffic to the west toward the golf course.

A 4-lane detour road will be built while they redo US Highway 75 so people just going through this area on the highway should have no problem. But there will be no direct access to 71st Street.

Of course, they're doing all this because behind the scenes, there is development afoot. Gary Evans with the Oklahoma Department of Transportation: "We talk to a lot of business development, a lot of residential development, going on in the area, so there is an increase in traffic from year to year."

Officials say your best bet is to exit on 81st Street and take a side road, maybe Elwood or Union back to 71st Street. The project will take about 6 months.