Brookside Construction Complete After Year-Long Project, Businesses Hope For Boost

Construction on Brookside is finally complete after the city of Tulsa started a project more than a year ago.

One Business owner in the area is relieved and shared how great it feels to not see any orange cones.

The owner of Slo Ride Tavern says the construction put a big strain on his business, blocking off its entrance at least four times, but now that it's clear he's hoping business will start booming.

South Peoria Avenue and East 41st Street in Tulsa got a facelift that took more than a year in the making. 

"It seems like forever because it's taken so long to get it done," said Sean Welborn, Slo Ride Tavern owner.

Sean Welborn owns the Slo Ride Tavern on Brookside and says his business took a big hit because a lot of the work was right outside of the tavern's front door. 

"If you didn't know how to get in through the neighborhood, you'd just drive on by, so it was a challenge to say the least," said Welborn. 

The City of Tulsa says crews made drainage improvements in addition to fixing the road.

Welborn says getting all of that done was hard for his customers.

"Especially, you know, traffic from all areas North, South, tough to turn left, tough to turn right, didn't matter if you were on that side, South side, West side of the road, East side of the road, it was always going to be difficult to get here no matter what," said Welborn. 

People driving through the area agree. 

"When it was taking longer and longer, I was like oh my gosh it needs to hurry up because with the construction there would be backups and then it was hard for people to get out of Walmart because people wouldn't even leave a gap for anybody," said Tulsa resident Emily Cammas.

As for Welborn, now that the project has finished, and it's the holiday season, he's expecting to see business at the Slo Ride Tavern speed up.

"People are out and about having a good time,  now that there's two lanes, four lanes going it's going to be awesome," he said.

The city of Tulsa says they've moved on to a new project on Harvard Avenue between 41st Street and 51st Street for a waterline replacement and street rehabilitation project.

The city says the work will continue through February.

The entire project is expected to wrap up by late August unless there are weather-related delays.