By Paige Orr, FOX23.com News Staff
TULSA, Okla. — A major midtown traffic headache is officially getting extended.
Exactly three months after crews began tearing up a heavily traveled stretch of South Harvard Avenue, city officials confirmed to FOX23 that the $2.7 million street rehabilitation project has been delayed well into next year.
The construction, spanning from East 21st Street to East 31st Street, broke ground in mid-March with an original public target to wrap up by the end of 2026.
However, a newly issued statement from the City of Tulsa reveals that early progress was washed out by spring storms.
“Currently, Crossland Heavy Contractors are working on the southbound lanes and are anticipating to begin paving those lanes this week,” the City of Tulsa statement reads. “Once those lanes are fully paved (beginning in July, weather permitting), they will be swapping traffic to the newly paved lanes and beginning construction on the northbound lanes. Due to heavy rainfalls during the first two months of the project, the estimated completion date has now been extended to early Feb. of 2027.”
The extension means drivers face eight more months of tight lanes, traffic cones and daily confusion.
Currently, the construction format squeezes all traffic into a single lane in each direction along the southbound side of the roadway.
For local business owners operating along the corridor, the delay means enduring the critical holiday shopping season behind a barrier of orange barrels.
Emily Bollinger, owner of the local boutique A Dog Dish, said she first learned of the pushback through her own customers following a neighborhood public meeting.
“We did get a letter from the city and it said it was going to be done in the fall, but then we kept having customers tell us, ‘no, they had a public meeting. It’s going to be done in the winter,'” shared Bollinger. “That was very disheartening to hear that it’s going to be done in February.”
Bollinger noted that the tight lane configurations have caused multiple vehicular accidents right outside her storefront windows, while simultaneously silencing the usual buzz of neighborhood retail traffic.
“We can tell there are fewer people coming in during the day. The days just seem kind of quieter. So yeah, it’s been noticeable.”
The business strain is felt acutely near the major highway interchanges.
Right by the Interstate 44 and Broken Arrow Expressway ramps, the concrete barricades make simple left turns into local parking lots an obstacle course.
Tim Slavin, the General Manager at Trencher’s Delicatessen, said the proximity of the construction barriers to the highway off-ramp has directly bit into daily lunch sales.
“Yeah, it’s definitely impacted our business and caused us to lose a lot of traffic, especially with how they have it set up there on the exit ramp from the BA,” said Slavin. “We’re just hoping that it’s going to end on time or early and hopefully we’re done with all this.”
Further down the street, the impact of the gridlock shifts from retail sales to community lifelines.
The Salvation Army Thrift Store and Donation Center is facing a two-fold setback as the bottleneck hampers both its supply chain and local charitable giving.
“Yes, it’s been challenging in several ways,” said Joshua Williams, the General Manager at the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center. “Not only were people coming in to bring donations, but our truck deliveries getting product here. Going through the construction really slows people down.”
Despite the drop in physical donations being brought to the center, Williams said the nonprofit is determined to stay the course using their retail presence to fund recovery programs.
“The construction’s definitely hindered us some, but we keep pressing on and doing what we’re called to do and that’s give back to the community and change lives.”
If the weather cooperates this week, contractors plan to lay down the fresh southbound pavement, setting up a massive traffic flip to the northbound side sometime next month.
Midtown business owners stress that while navigating the orange lanes takes extra patience, their backroad access routes are clear and their front doors remain open for business.
