This is one of Tulsa's worst unimproved intersections for traffic congestion. Traffic congests on 71st Street during most hours of the day and usually congests on Sheridan Road during peak hours. Congestion on 71st Street was bad enough that, in 1979, the city of Tulsa installed an eastbound no-left-turn sign that banned left turns between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. weekdays. The ban soon was expanded to all hours, and a westbound no-left-turn sign for all hours was installed in 1982. While congestion is bad now at the intersection, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The 1983 bond issue will fund a project to widen the intersection for additional through lanes and left- and right-turn lanes on each approach. The project tentatively is scheduled for construction within the next three years. The intersection has a shopping center with McCartney Foods and Med-X Drug on the northeast corner. A smaller shopping center, Plaza Village, is on the east side of Sheridan Road near 70th Street, while a Gulf station occupies the northwest corner. The southeast corner has various businesses, and the southwest corner is undeveloped. Photo taken July 1984.
