The long-awaited streetscape redesign for Dewey Avenue (aka Route 66) in downtown Sapulpa, Oklahoma, is scheduled to begin today.
In a meeting with the city’s downtown retailers and building owners last week, city manager Joan Riley confirmed the start date of the project, reported the Sapulpa Times.
One of the most highly-anticipated parts of the 2020 GO Bond, the Dewey Streetscape Redesign proposal was exciting, ambitious, and divisive. It promises to fundamentally change the way historic downtown Sapulpa operates, as more of a shopping, eating and entertainment district rather than a pretty-but-passable town on Route 66.
The major points of change for the redesign are truly transformative: lanes of travel will be reduced from four to two, with a center median designed to be reminiscent of the trolley tracks of Sapulpa’s yesteryear. Sidewalks will be extended outward to accommodate more pedestrian traffic and allow for new retail and eatery opportunities like sidewalk sales and bistro tables. Parallel parking spots will be removed from the three-block stretch of Dewey Avenue and replaced with a multipurpose “loading lane” for dropping someone off or unloading cargo. The City will also be adding ADA-compliant parking to Water and Park Streets.
The project is expected to take about 200 days, which would place its completion in late October.
However, that was too close for comfort for the city’s Route 66 Christmas Chute on Dewey. Wary of the possibility of construction delays, organizers chose to pause the event this year and resume it in 2026.
(A rendering of the future Dewey Avenue streetscape project in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, courtesy of the city)