A major traffic bottleneck has been eliminated with the widening of the 61st Street and Mingo Road intersection in south Tulsa. Sixty-First Street was widened to five lanes from east of Memorial Drive to the Mingo Valley Expressway, which included widening the Mingo intersection to four lanes with left- and right-turn lanes on each approach. The project began in 1995 and was completed in the fall of 1996. The Mingo Road approaches were widened with asphalt to accommodate a left-turn lane, one straight lane and a right-turn lane, with the turn lanes being quite short. The permament traffic signal, however, was installed. In 2001, a project began to widen Mingo Road to five lanes between 51st and 71st streets, which included rebuilding the approaches at 61st Street to full capacity. The Mingo Road project was completed in early 2003. The 61st Street project was funded by the 1991 sales tax, and the Mingo Road project was funded by the 1996 sales tax. Photograph taken August 2003.
DEVELOPING TULSA: THE AUSTIN HELLWIG COLLECTION
