Tulsa County Engineer Alex Mills said on Monday that the slate of major road projects planned for summer will almost certainly be reduced as a result of the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
"Diesel tax, gasoline tax, gross production tax — that is the bulk of our funding," Mills said. "The numbers from March showed a pretty significant drop."
Mills said that the numbers for April are likely to be even more significant.
"The truth is, the April collections, which we will see reported in mid-May, are probably going to be the most telling," Mills said. "That's when we saw the real drop in people driving, commuting to work, going on trips, so that's when we really expect to see a pretty significant hit."
Despite the potential postponement or cancelation of major projects, Tulsa County residents shouldn't be concerned about standard maintenance, Mills said.
"We're still going to be out there trying to make improvements," he said. "We can do a lot of work to repair and improve roads. As a matter of fact, we have a lot of crews out there today working all over Tulsa County."