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Gathering Place, Riverside Drive Openings Pushed Back

Weather impacts going back to last year have piled up enough to delay the opening of A Gathering Place for Tulsa and the reopening of Riverside Drive, which has been closed during construction of the park.

Gathering Place Director Jeff Stava said they’re now looking at late spring to summer 2018 rather than late this year.

"When you look at a $465 million project, the coordination efforts that's required between the city and the project and coordinating the [subcontractors] and the work on site — it's an amazing project, it's a lot of moving parts, and when Mother Nature kind of intrudes a little bit, it does affect timelines and schedules," Stava said.

City officials said Riverside Drive will remain closed to prevent run-ins between the public and large equipment and eliminate inconvenient, temporary lane closures.

Areas upstream on the Arkansas River got enough rain in late 2015 for Tulsa to see increased flows into last spring. Then Tulsa had a warm winter, which slowed down tree planting at the nearly 100 acre park.

Recent heavy rains are also a factor. City Engineer Paul Zachary said the new storm sewer the city put in for the park and surrounding neighborhoods during the early stages of construction is working perfectly, though.

"Actually, the neighborhoods and stuff like that ... it's free-flowing out of here," Zachary said. "I mean, we used to have 48-inch pipes draining this entire area, now we've got two 10-by-10 boxes, you know, draining this."

Though the park and the road will remain closed several months longer than expected, the 5 acre Chapman Foundations Adventure Playground will open as anticipated in January for local elementary schools to visit.

"This park is built for the kids of Tulsa, and what better way to open the park then for the kids of Tulsa to be the first ones to experience it?" Stava said.

Groundbreaking for the Gathering Place was in September 2014.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.