Inola Bridge Replacement Project Back on Track After Years of Delays

Work on a bridge replacement project in Inola is finally back on track after years of delays. 

ODOT says the former contractor working on the bridge left the job unfinished. The bridge replacement project started back in 2021 and was supposed to be done a year later, but after years of delays, a new contractor is on the job.

For months this construction site has been empty, an eyesore for anyone driving into town.

"You don't want that to be your welcome to Inola sign for sure," says Inola Chamber of Commerce president Nicholas Peery.

He is proud of his town and is ready to see the end of this year’s long project.

"Everybody wants to take pride in their community obviously seeing a very dilapidated construction zone with overgrown shrubs and grass isn't eye appealing," says Peery.

He’s hopeful though as a new contractor takes over the job left half-finished by a construction company found to be in default by ODOT. 

"This is extremely rare, this is the first time that anyone working here currently in Tulsa has ever dealt with this," says ODOT Spokesman T.J. Gerlach.

He says the $2.8 million project is being taken over by Paragon Contractors.

"Examining the sight conditions that are out there right now, looking at any work that might need to be redone or anything that they can just take off from where it sits and continue on forward," says Gerlach. 

Nicholas Peery says the delayed project has been a headache for people in the community, but he wants to look forward and not dwell on the negative.

"I don't think really the focus should be on what happened in the past but just that we're making progress."

ODOT says this project should be wrapped up by the end of this summer.