Tulsa Council Gives Timeline For Vision Projects

The City of Tulsa announced plans Wednesday to start building the next phase of Vision projects.

It means even some of the largest projects could be done in the next five years.    

The mayor and council decided the projects couldn't wait so the plan is to borrow now to get a bigger payoff later.

The Tulsa Fairgrounds will get $30 million in upgrades with the next part of the Vision Plan and because the money is coming soon, construction will start in two months.

The City Council and Mayor G.T. Bynum announced an accelerated timeline for Vision, with 80 percent of projects fully funded within five years.

"The thing that concerned me most when going out to the public was th15-yearar time horizon," said Phil Lakin, Tulsa City Council. "And I didn't want any of these projects to be in the 14th or 15th year, because we need them right now."

The River projects are first on the list, fully funded within three years, with a new Zink dam and lake possibly completed within five years.

A new BMX training course and office building, $15 million dollars, comes in the first four years.

A $3 million master plan for walking paths and bike lanes is funded in year two.

A big share of the $11 million for projects on Route 66 comes in 2018.

Bynum said the timeline means Tulsa benefits from the projects sooner than later.

"The funding is online for these as quickly as it can be, so construction can go as fast as possible, so we can get the positive economic benefit out of them for the maximum amount of time," Bynum said. 

Speeding up the timeline for almost everything else pushed the South Tulsa river dam to the back of the line, around 2024.

The city believes it's not a delay because it will take that long to finalize the plans.

"We don't know what's going to happen on that one until the Muscogee (Creek) Nation makes their decision on that and they need time to do that," Bynum said.     

The money starts flowing into Vision about April and that's when things really start moving.