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Big Changes Coming to Downtown Tulsa Streets Starting This Fall

Boulder Avenue will get an overhaul between First and 10th streets in downtown Tulsa.

Work should begin this fall to convert it into a two-way street. Water line repairs and fixes to make crossings compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act will also be involved.

"You go in some of those areas and it's like, it's hazardous for folks in wheelchairs and those kind of things, so, we're able to pick that up as we do these one-way to to-way conversions," said City Engineer Paul Zachary. "We get all new light, all new infrastructure, so it's a win."

The new layout will have parking on both sides and two traffic lanes in both directions. It was chosen from five options based on projections of which one would impact traffic the least while preserving transit, bicycle and pedestrian uses. The layout could change once actual data such as traffic counts are available.

"Without knowing for sure and not having to go back out and redo actual, structural curbs and those kind of things, we thought, 'Let's just go this way,'" Zachary said. "That satisfies everybody, then we can go back and change some paint later."

One lane of traffic in both directions will be shared with bicyclists, who will have priority. Those lanes will be marked accordingly.

"Now, it's not a solid green line like some bike paths are, but this one is — we would really pepper the road with it so everybody driving along would be fully aware there's bicyclists there," Zachary said.

Cheyenne Avenue will get the same conversion after Boulder is done.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.