Drivers Complaining About Drainage Issues On Memorial

A just-completed emergency road repair in South Tulsa is generating fresh complaints about a new problem. Storm drains along Memorial Drive, from 71st to 81st, create dips in the right-hand lanes. They're deeper and more frequent going southbound, but they're in the northbound lanes too, from 71st to 81st.

Judy Harris, an Uber Driver, drives over the dips every day. "They actually dug out those places. They had it all done, and they went back and dug those out and put those in like they are, the dips, they did, every one of them.”

City Councilor Phil Lakin has gotten a few complaints from drivers who called it “a roller coaster in the right lane.”

The problem with the uneven drains started as a solution to an outbreak of potholes on Memorial earlier this year. The road was falling apart, so the City came in with an emergency repair and laid down some fresh asphalt. That new layer built up the road but left the drains at their original level, and that created the dips. They can't be improved without a much more expensive and lengthy project.

Tulsa Streets Director Terry Ball said “We will be monitoring the roadway. This was not a capital project like Memorial between 81st Street and the Creek Turnpike. The complaint of a wavy feel would be in contrast to complaints of potential vehicle damage due to the road conditions before the emergency overlay work.”

Harris can laugh about the drive on a newly repaired road. “They definitely make it fun to go along there, if you want to go whoop, whoop, whoop.”

Drivers have long forgotten the potholes that were here and now with a nice smooth road can go fast enough to notice this much smaller problem.