TULSA, Okla. — Work to upgrade the levees in Tulsa is expected to get underway in the spring of 2023.
The $137 million dollar project will be fully funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“We know that the levees barely survived in 2019, I don’t want to test it again,” said Karen Keith, the Tulsa County Commissioner for District 2 who was instrumental in working with the federal delegation to secure the funding from the infrastructure bill.
35 percent of the cost of the project will have to be paid back over a period of 30 years.
Keith says she thinks the city and county will put money towards it, and that an assessment along the levees paid by businesses and homeowners can help pay off the costs over the next thirty years.
FOX23 spoke with a business owner and a homeowner Monday afternoon who are supportive of the efforts undertaken to bring the long awaited Tulsa-West Tulsa Levees Project to fruition.
A feasibility study was ordered after inspections revealed that the Tulsa levees, which were originally built in the 1940s, were not compliant with federal standards.