The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Construction to start in September.  Big announcement from Mayor Bartlet (sic) tomorrow.

(for those of you who have not hit the paywall yet this month.)

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=334&articleid=20110705_334_0_MayorD326400

Said rendering

(http://www.tulsaworld.com/articleimages/2011/20110705_renderboulder070707076.jpg)

   

July 06, 2011
7/6/2011 11:19:00 AM
'Bridge to Brady' construction beginning soon

‘Bridge to Brady’ Construction Beginning Soon                 Mayor Dewey F. Bartlett Jr., joined by representatives of the Brady Arts District Owners Association, Downtown Coordinating Council and the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce, today announced a major step for revitalization and increased economic development in downtown Tulsa. Construction is scheduled to begin in September on a new Boulder Avenue bridge spanning the downtown BNSF railroad tracks and linking First Street to Archer Street. Renderings of the bridge are attached to this email. “Building the new bridge between the downtown core and the historic Brady Arts District, which is undergoing rapid revitalization, is the latest infrastructure improvement for this area,” Mayor Bartlett said. “The new Boulder bridge will provide a needed link, for both vehicles and pedestrians, between the restaurants, entertainment venues and cultural attractions in the Brady District and ONEOK Field, the BOK Center and other portions of the downtown area.” The bridge will connect the Brady Arts District with downtown, and the existing Boulder Avenue continues the connection south to Veterans Park near the Arkansas River. Brady Arts District Owners Association President Steve Ganzkow said, “The newly designed Boulder bridge will be of great benefit to downtown and the Brady Arts District. The bridge will provide direct access and link downtown office workers and visitors with restaurants, entertainment and art activities in the Brady Arts District. The timing is perfect with all the new construction underway in the Brady Arts District.” The old Boulder Avenue bridge, built in 1929, was closed to traffic a decade ago and was demolished in 2009. The new Boulder bridge will have four lanes to accommodate both north- and southbound traffic and will include an extra-wide sidewalk for pedestrian use. It also fits in the overall downtown master plan, designed with transit potential as a downtown trolley route. Landscaping will include Boston ivy, holly and roses at the approach ends of the bridge near the outside retaining walls. Art students from Tulsa Technology Center have designed artwork for the bridge fencing that represents Tulsa’s history and culture through to the future. The City of Tulsa has contracted with Becco Contractors Inc. for this $8,296,349.60 project, which includes bridge construction, landscaping, lighting and artwork installation. Completion of the project is scheduled for summer 2012. Construction funding for the bridge comes from both the 2006 Third-Penny Sales Tax and the 2008 Bond Issue. SAIC Energy, Environment & Infrastructure L.L.C. was the design engineering consultant for the project.
Mayor Dewey F. Bartlett Jr., joined by representatives of the Brady Arts District Owners Association, Downtown Coordinating Council and the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce, today announced a major step for revitalization and increased economic development in downtown Tulsa. Construction is scheduled to begin in September on a new Boulder Avenue bridge spanning the downtown BNSF railroad tracks and linking First Street to Archer Street.
 
“Building the new bridge between the downtown core and the historic Brady Arts District, which is undergoing rapid revitalization, is the latest infrastructure improvement for this area,” Mayor Bartlett said. “The new Boulder bridge will provide a needed link, for both vehicles and pedestrians, between the restaurants, entertainment venues and cultural attractions in the Brady District and ONEOK Field, the BOK Center and other portions of the downtown area.”

The bridge will connect the Brady Arts District with downtown, and the existing Boulder Avenue continues the connection south to Veterans Park near the Arkansas River. Brady Arts District Owners Association President Steve Ganzkow said, “The newly designed Boulder bridge will be of great benefit to downtown and the Brady Arts District. The bridge will provide direct access and link downtown office workers and visitors with restaurants, entertainment and art activities in the Brady Arts District. The timing is perfect with all the new construction underway in the Brady Arts District.”
 
The old Boulder Avenue bridge, built in 1929, was closed to traffic a decade ago and was demolished in 2009. The new Boulder bridge will have four lanes to accommodate both north- and southbound traffic and will include an extra-wide sidewalk for pedestrian use. It also fits in the overall downtown master plan, designed with transit potential as a downtown trolley route.
 
Landscaping will include Boston ivy, holly and roses at the approach ends of the bridge near the outside retaining walls. Art students from Tulsa Technology Center have designed artwork for the bridge fencing that represents Tulsa’s history and culture through to the future.
 
The City of Tulsa has contracted with Becco Contractors Inc. for this $8,296,349.60 project, which includes bridge construction, landscaping, lighting and artwork installation. Completion of the project is scheduled for summer 2012.
 
Construction funding for the bridge comes from both the 2006 Third-Penny Sales Tax and the 2008 Bond Issue. SAIC Energy, Environment & Infrastructure L.L.C. was the design engineering consultant for the project.

 I wish it were more like the early renderings I saw with trees and plantings along the wide sidewalk.   Either that or it would be nice to have some sort of shade covering design over the sidewalk.  If your actually going to want to have people walk from one side of the bridge to the next, that would help greatly, especially during the summer months like now, or when its raining a bit.

Was in downtown yesterday. Walked for blocks and blocks showing someone around.  Though the evening temps with heat index reached into the 100's,  if your in the shade, its not bad at all. But as soon as you have to walk a block or two in the blistering heat without shade... it gets ugly and most aren't gonna try it.  Thats the great thing about dense urban streets like Boston Ave and 5th. There is almost always shade and the occasional place to pop into to cool off or get out of the rain. Awnings and trees help too.  But "bridging" the gap to the Brady Arts, you will need interest and a modicum of protection.  Artwork, sculptural elements, greenery can add interest to that long expanse. Trees and or some sort of awnings/cover can act to add shade and a little protection.  

One thing I like about the new Tribune lofts expansion is how it goes right beside the bridge for a ways.  That helps make that otherwise desolate stretch of the street a little more pedestrian friendly.  Unfortunately for the Boulder Bridge, there are a blocks worth of surface parking lots leading up to the bridge which makes it even more desolate as a potential walk towards or from the Brady Arts District.  Unless you see that as potential redevelopment areas but you would definitely want to zone it so that whatever went in there were pedestrian friendly in nature.  Even the wide gap to the east of the parking garage just west of Boulder and south of the bridge has potential to have some shops or businesses there.  

I wonder what that area is zoned to be pedestrian wise?

Since we've got a I-244 bridge update, I thought I'd update the status of the Boulder bridge
Apparently they're waiting on the steel... saying there's a back-order

In the TW article, they made no mention of trolley tracks.  Did we get hosed?

Never has been any mention of trolley tracks..    It has been mentioned as a "trolley route" (bus).

Steel mills are backed up.  Amazing item of news.  Sounds like the Asian economy is running along better than some would want us to think.  Sucks having to wait for steel - maybe they should hire some more people to work those mills!

I don't know who you work for, but I would bet that your company also has a backlog.  Probably better than 6 months, and quite possibly a year or better.  (If you are waiting on Asian steel, then maybe should think about buying some US made product.)

We are not involved in any large quantities of steel.   How many large steel mills are there still in the USA?  Is it a matter of hiring or building new mills?

Basically only two.  US Steel and Nucor.

What a pathetic state of affairs that is!  Remember the old Bob Seger song - Making Thunderbirds! ?  Makes me sick to dwell on it too much...
Lucky if you work...

Reminder;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CW5GRilRyE

Those are steel companies, not mills.  Each has more than one mill.  Other companies have mills in the US as well.  Further, because of advances in technology, steel mills no longer need to be the large behemoths of the past.  Wikipedia lists 65 facilities under the category of "ironworks and steel mills".

I've had many local manufacturers and wholesalers tell me the steel imported from Asia is greatly inferior to American or even Canadian steel.  The North American made steel is much harder and pure.

I've been told by a retired manufacturing person that the Chineese can make good stuff.  It's just not the stuff we buy for bargain basement prices.  Maybe steel is in the same situation.  They can make good stuff but we "want" the cheap stuff.

There is also streetscaping going on to the south, I can only assume to make it flow smoothly into the new pedestrian areas on the bridge.

Now lets turn Boulder Ave into a two way street like Boston Ave.

A handful of roads in Downtown Tulsa are set to transform from one-way to two-way streets. This action comes after thirty blocks are identified as in-need of conversion.

Main Street from 6th to 10th will soon be accessible two ways. This is funded by two separate groups, with one common goal, to make it less confusing for drivers.

"We built our streets to get people out. Two way streets help keep people in," says Elliot Nelson. To help keep people in downtown and at one of his seven businesses, Nelson is pushing for traffic to flow two ways on Main. Even if it's twelve blocks away from his closest pub.

Nelson says, "We all took a chance on our urban core. It's important not only for me as a business owner, but for those people as business owners, for the city as a whole. This is our economic driver, where most of the good high paying jobs are."
$115,000 will convert Main Street at 8th and 9th. The transformation is paid for by two different groups.
The funding comes from the Downtown Coordinating Council and non-allocated assessment money. Main at 6th and 7th Streets are funded by Vision 2025. "Two-waying the streets gives better access, bottom line. A retailer or developer isn't willing to put money into downtown if they do not have good access," says Mark Brown, director of traffic for the city.

Each intersection is estimated to cost $35,000 to $40,000. That cost is doubled if crews have to replace the electrical hardware at each intersection, which is common downtown.

"You'll have to convert the stripping over from 10th to 9th. As well as the signs for two-way traffic. I'm not including parking meters on this project," Brown says.

Both projects are set to be complete by fall of 2012.

The next streets and avenues officials want to transform are 4th, 5th, Cheyenne, and Boulder. However, these projects are not yet funded, just proposed.

It never made sense to me why when Main St. was opened back up as a two-way from 3rd to 6th the city did not  continue to 10th.  The short stretch of one-way makes no sense and orphaned the stretch from 6th to 3rd.  I am glad to see this is finally going to change.

I noticed a large crane and other equipment at the Boulder bridge this morning.  Reopening this access to the Brady District will be very helpful to the Brady and the downtown core.

I assume there's going to be support columns between the tracks?

It looks like those are constructed already. Anyone want to walk across it with me when the steel spans are dropped in place?

I'm down!

Also, I love your avatar pic.  I really wish that the residents would chip in to put new wrought iron up.

We tried, the city traffic engineer nixed it. There is no way to make it tall enough for the trucks that are taking Carson to get to the highway. He also was not interested in diverting those trucks to Denver.

Double dumbass on him then.

(http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OcC1f1jqCPI/0.jpg)

I caught the reference but failed in posting the video.

    It looks like those are constructed already. Anyone want to walk across it with me when the steel spans are dropped in place?

Can anyone think of a larger span between peers around these parts?

It looks like those are constructed already. Anyone want to walk across it with me when the steel spans are dropped in place?


Actually, it appears they're going the "we don't need no stinking center peer" route.
Can anyone think of a larger span between peers around these parts?
6 more huge beams delivered today.

The were moving a beam into position at noon today.
Not sure if they finished

Big enough for a future trolley system, eh? I knew that I had heard something about the bridges rail compatibility.  Get excited!

Anybody know if Sept. 28 (or earlier) is still the plan? Progress has seemed to be slow (at least from my completely untrained eye) the past few weeks. And they're definitely not burning the midnight oil to make the deadline.

I won't be open by the 28th.  They have made multiple changes.  I understand they have added $300M to the lighting budget and are pouring the concrete approaches 16" deep.  As a frame of reference TUL's runways are 19" and I-44 is 13" deep.

Does that mean it won't be open by the 28th?

It'll be so nice to be able to get to the stuff on the other side.

Tulsans, we love stuff.

especially when stuff is stuffed inside of other stuff

Just as long as they don't try stuffing their stuff inside my stuff...

V2

I noticed they were pouring some mighty think slabs o cement.
What's up with that?

I guess that will be the route for double loaded milk trucks, lol.

Seriously, is that bridge we will use to move tanks from the north and south sides of the west side for WWIII?

Maybe this bridge will last longer than 15 or 20 years.

Maybe this bridge will last longer than 15 or 20 years.

The original Boulder Bridge that was torn down lasted much longer than 15 or 20 years, you know. It was built in 1929.

Poor maintenance has a lot to do with it, at least in the case of bridges. In other states, they actually remove the rust and repaint the bridges from time to time to keep the corrosion to an acceptable rate.

I'll agree with maintenance of the steel but we can't even pour concrete that will last.  Also, my brother found some info in the mid 70s that basically required contractors to the State of Oklahoma to use inferior(compared to industry standards) asphalt in order to meet the "specs". 

South Memorial seemed fine when I lived out there, aside from the lack of rebar tying adjacent slabs together. When was that concrete laid down?

If we really wanted to make our concrete roads last, we'd put a half inch of asphalt on top as a wear layer. Diamond grinding, which seems to be the new hotness here, just smooths out the already deteriorated concrete, which then chips away at the slab boundaries at a rapid clip. Seal it with asphalt after grinding, and that wouldn't happen. The downside to the asphalt wear layer is that you've got to come back and redo it every 4 to 5 years. It's a much faster and cheaper process than the otherwise necessary concrete work, though. The milling and asphalt laying can be done as a continuous operation. Out in Arizona they do on the order of 20 lane miles a day with a single crew. I forget the exact number, it's been a couple of years since I was looking at it in any detail. They actually reuse the just-milled aggregate, so the only input required other than fuel for the trucks is the asphalt itself.

It shouldn't be necessary to put asphalt on top of new concrete.

Sure, it's not necessary. After all, S Memorial is only now (apparently) getting anywhere near as bad as, say, Yale between 21st and 31st. It has been almost four years since I've been out there, so it certainly could have changed. Traffic is so heavy I wouldn't be surprised. I don't recall a bunch of potholes, though. Has that changed, or is the roughness just due to misaligned slabs like I-40 in Arkansas used to have?

The thing about the asphalt overlay is that the asphalt protects the concrete from the weather and surface damage, making it last pretty much indefinitely, barring stupid drainage problems washing out the base layers underneath the concrete.

I understand the theory of the asphalt protecting the concrete but have driven enough roads with an asphalt overlay with cracks in the asphalt matching the original concrete segments that I am not so sure it always works as promised.

If the concrete slabs aren't stable, it will crack the asphalt. Same goes for just going too long before repaving.

I think we need someone with some real world Civil Engineering experience to take this conversation any further.

Won't get much of that here in Oklahoma...maybe we can get a Colorado CE to talk - they seem to use asphalt successfully.


Base for concrete - I-40 in Texas, around Amarillo, was being redone one time in the very early 80's when I had occasion to drive through there.  They had a gravel base, but then put down a layer of asphalt as cushion for the concrete.  Then poured concrete on top.  Drove through last summer and while I couldn't even begin to guess where that section was, most of the road has been redone again, but is much better than OK parts of the road.

It is not that difficult - Germany builds roads well.  At about double the cost.  The pavement is noticeably thicker - about double.  We intentionally choose to build that way.  We are willing to "settle" for much less to just get it 'good enough'.  It really is that simple.


You can go to many of the little towns around northeast Oklahoma and find a side-street (neighborhood) road system that has been in place for almost 80 years and is still functional, and will probably last another 40 to 50 years without major overhaul.  Has required VERY little maintenance compared to the way we do side streets today - essentially none comparatively.  Has built in traffic calming for 25 mph traffic - so that NONE of those ridiculous speed bump additions are needed.  And yet, we ran away from that as fast as we could when the asphalt boys came to town to sell us their bill of goods (kind of like the gypsy asphalt guys the operate out of Holdenville area today).

But that road system today would sure cut back on the asphalt boys revenue....

are there many places in the country with as wide of temperature swings as we get in Okla.? 

Not much better than we fare, at least out on the mountain passes and lower traffic highways like 160.

I don't have any knowledge about roads or road construction, but are there many places in the country with as wide of temperature swings as we get in Okla.?  It's not uncommon to have a difference of 100+ degress from the coldest to hottest temp in one year.  Can you cost effectively build roads to hold up under those kinds of extremes?

It seems like there are workers at the oneplace site working most every Saturday. Yet we accept less for publicly funded projects.

They only have to finish one day early to receive the bonus.  Why pay overtime?

Aren't bonuses a per-day early rate?

Finishing early? The deadline was Sept. 28. Is there a new deadline in place, or are they paying a penalty?

Finishing early? The deadline was Sept. 28. Is there a new deadline in place, or are they paying a penalty?

I wouldn't think OT would be needed. Just employ more workers, possibly some working outside normal business hours. This thing's been in the works forever. It's frustrating to see those guys taking off at 4pm (or whatever time it is) while they've been working more than just normal business hours at lots of private construction sites downtown.

I ran across this bridge several weeks ago...it was unattended.  I haven't had the same opportunity lately.

They were putting on railings and working on the Archer end when I went by on Sunday.

Artwork is installed.

Still need traffic stripes, sidewalk work and removal of the old traffic signals at Archer.

Open.

Any.

Day.

Now.

.

.

Boulder Avenue bridge opening ceremony with Mayor Bartlett at 2 p.m. on Feb. 4.

Trivia - who was mayor when this got torn down?

And now the no parking signs are up. Still waiting on Dewey to cut the ribbon I guess.

Can the barriers be moved aside?

I've been using the bridge for months now. Just not in a car.
I dig the decorative lights. This bridge is steeper than its brethren on Main, Boston, Cincy and Detroit.

Those barricades don't look strong enough to stop a car.  Let's go for it.

Those barricades don't look strong enough to stop a car.  Let's go for it.

So is there any possibility the borden trucks can be relocated?  With the new bridge and the new businesses on the corner seems like a big waste of real estate.  Even a nicely landscaped parking lot and grand entrance for the Brady Theater and local businesses would be better than a lot full of trailers.  Or a building of some sort.  Any sort.

Ribbon is cut. Bridge is open!

(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/72640_10200627337871816_1156257536_n.jpg)

Looks like I have a photowalk destination this weekend....

(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/72640_10200627337871816_1156257536_n.jpg)

See if your car can catch air

(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/555964_4386235859244_1396653445_n.jpg)

Chick, I dig you.

Am I crazy, or was all the artwork up on the bridge at one point ?

The western sidewalk is closed. Understandable, with as little time as they had from start to finish on this project.

Workers have spent every day since the grand opening moving the artwork from the east side, to the west, and now back to the east.

ain't nobody got time for that!

And the decorative colored lights were not working on last Saturday...well some were and most weren't. 

I hope they didn't use the same contractor they used to light the QT Center.

Breaking news:  They started to install artwork along the west side this morning (without taking it from the east side), then took everything down from the west side and left.  This is really exciting to watch.

No, it looks really nice at night. I was driving down Cheyenne the other night and did a double take. Very nice addition to Downtown.

The opening of the Boulder Bridge in downtown Tulsa was a big day for the city.

It was a sunny day in February of 2013. It featured a ribbon-cutting and marching band.

"Simply having this bridge going over the railroad tracks from one terrific side to the other," Mayor Dewey Bartlett said at the unveiling.

It features unique metal artwork with rows of LED light strips underneath to illuminate it at night, but just eight months after the opening, the rows of LED lights stopped working on the bridge's west side.

The lights were part of a grand plan to make the bridge an artistic landmark in Tulsa. It's a bridge with a lot of history.

The Boulder Bridge was built in 1929, was closed for a decade for safety reasons and was torn down in 2009. A rebuilding project launched soon after, and four years and $8 million later, the Boulder Bridge was open once again.

City of Tulsa Field Engineer Manager Terry Ball says the city hired a contractor to put in the lights, which cost $462,000 -- paid for through a sales tax and bond money.

When the lights on the west side stopped working, Ball says the contractor checked it out.

"There was device that was burnt up and he sent it back to the factory to have it looked at, and they put a new one in, but the factory said they'd either seen a lightning strike they think or a surge," Ball said.

The 2NEWS Investigators obtained emails and letters to the city from the light project contractor, subcontractor and an engineering firm. All three cite lightning as a possible or likely reason for the destroyed LED light strips.

But the 2NEWS Investigators found the city didn't have one key component that could've prevented the damage caused by the lightning strike -- something many of us use everyday: a surge protector.

Taxpayers we talked to were surprised.

"There's weather and so that needs to be taken into consideration anytime that you're building anything that may be affected by weather," said Tulsa taxpayer Georgi Magrady.

"They should've paid the extra for the surge protector," said Bob Magrady.

"That would've been the smart thing to do," said Joel Dollar.

"The question is: What do they do now? How do they fix the situation without taking more money out of our pockets?" Magrady said.

We asked the city that same question too. The subcontractor that installed the lights calls the incident an "act of God" and that isn't covered under warranty. So that means you, the taxpayer, will have to pay for the fix.

A surge protector could have prevented the suspected lightning damage and saved the city the cost to fix it too.

Ball realizes not getting the protector may have been a costly mistake.

In fact, after our interview, Ball said the city turned off the east side lights as well until a surge protector is installed saying in an email they "don't want to risk any additional damage."

A city spokesperson says they don't know right now how much it will cost to fix the LED lights.

They are also looking at the price of surge protectors. We did too. We talked to professionals in industrial surge protection, and they told us that to protect the nearly $500,000 worth of LED lights on the bridge, it would have cost the city between $1,000 to $2,000.

Ball says the lessons learned this time around will be used in the future. He says now they will look at getting surge protectors.

"That would be one thing we'd talk about with design and see if on future ones make sure that we do have that, cause when you do have elevated surfaces like a bridge it may be prone more to the lightning," said Ball.

A dark spot in a project that was years in the making.

If it was an act of God, why don’t they just send God the bill  ???

Based on what a supplier told me they poured the concrete several inches thicker than spec on the approaches.

If it was an act of God, why don’t they just send God the bill  ???

Why didn't the contractor advise about adding the surge protectors?

Knowing what I do about contracting with the city, they probably did and it was either ignored or not approved by someone who thought it to be non-essential. 

It may well have even been over-looked in the engineering phase and no one further down the construction food chain gave it a thought.  That may be the most likely reason.

There is the chance that it wasn't a surge at all.

The only way to prevent that particular form of surge damage is a lightning protection ring.

So what ever came of the light issue on the bridge?  Lift rug and sweep?

So what ever came of the light issue on the bridge?  Lift rug and sweep?

So what ever came of the light issue on the bridge?  Lift rug and sweep?