Status report on US 75 and 71st Street interchange

Friday, December 23rd 2005, 9:28 am

By: News On 6

If grandma's house is off of US Highway 75, we have good news for you Christmas travelers. The road project at 71st Street, in southwest Tulsa is all but finished. They replaced about a mile of pavement and put in a new bridge and interchange at 71st Street.

News on 6 reporter Steve Berg says what they also did is lower the entire hilltop by about 18 feet. So just a huge amount of dirt-moving to do.

They did that by the way to improve the sightlines and safety for drivers. If it seems like this project went fast, that's because it did. They're about 40 days ahead of schedule. The project supervisor says there's no big secret. They just used more workers, more equipment, and more hours.

Harold Bogle with Sherwood Construction: "about a million yards of dirt to move, a mile of four to six lanes of paving and a bridge to build and a pretty short time."

They still have a little bit of finishing work to do around the roadway, but that won't get in the way of drivers.