Downtown Tulsa arena demolition work continues

The path of progress at the site of the new arena in downtown Tulsa is wide open. The last brick building on the arena site fell in the path of a bulldozer Tuesday. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Emory

Tuesday, April 26th 2005, 10:25 am

By: News On 6

The path of progress at the site of the new arena in downtown Tulsa is wide open. The last brick building on the arena site fell in the path of a bulldozer Tuesday.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan has a Vision 2025 watch update.

The four square blocks of land where the arena will go is not a blank slate yet, but it's getting close. Of the 20 pieces of land and buildings - all but two have been cleared. The debris of the last brick building - the Childrenâ€™s Day Nursery - is being hauled away now.

The last two buildings are still federal government property, but the city is close to a deal on a parking lot administration building and the post office vehicle maintenance shop. Paul Zachary with the City of Tulsa:â€ They have to be going to where there is no down time, the vehicle facility they have to close down on one site one night and open up at the new on the next"

The budget for this stage of the Vision plan is $10-million. The city has almost $7-million on the property so far, and believes buying the rest won't blow the budget. Once the last couple of buildings are cleared away, the next job is moving underground utilities.

There's an intersection of lines in the middle of the site - they'll have to be moved to the perimeter so the bowl of the arena can be dug out. "The major arena next construction item for that is excavation and that's going to start early in July."

Zachary says though it's taken most of a year to get the land - everything is on schedule. "Ultimately the question is whether or not we can meet the scheduled opening date of 2008, the spring and so far there's nothing to show that we can't do that."