The city is unbowed by a Supreme Court ruling that thwarted a toll-bridge contract.

Bixby officials still are determined to have more than one bridge to get residents in and out of Tulsa, despite a recent court ruling that derailed the latest plan.

"We're going to be pursuing it just as aggressively as we always have, either through a toll bridge or a free bridge," Bixby Mayor Ray Bowen said. "We'll do whatever we have to do to get that bridge built."

The Oklahoma Supreme Court unanimously decided that Tulsa would have to be one of the partners in the privately financed public initiative because the bridge's north connection lies in Tulsa at 121st Street and Yale Avenue.

As it was, the partners were Jenks, Bixby and Infrastructure Ventures Inc., a group of Tulsa investors who would have financed and operated the toll bridge.

Bowen and Bixby City Manager Micky Webb said they look forward to having conversations with Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor.

The bridge would serve the most rapidly urbanizing area in Tulsa County, Webb said.

"Our people have just as much right to a bridge as the rest of Tulsa County," he said. "If they don't want one on Yale for $50 million, we'll take one up Riverside Drive for $100 million.

"If we don't have the users to pay for it, then the taxpayers have to pay for it."

Bowen would like to pick up where Taylor left off in August when she suggested that Tulsa, instead of a private company, build a toll bridge so Tulsa could capture some of the toll revenues.

Taylor said in a prepared statement: "It was certainly preliminary but was a starting point for discussions that we believed addressed the needs of the city of Tulsa as well as the surrounding region. The city of Tulsa has significant infrastructure needs that we are currently struggling to meet and that will remain our first priority."

Taylor's key points were that the toll revenues would pay for the bridge's construction, Tulsa's infrastructure needs (estimated at $66 million), pay off the debt of the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks, and reimburse the private developer's costs so far.

Bowen said he told Taylor at the time that Bixby was more than receptive to the idea because the main need for a second bridge is access, especially during emergencies.

But Jenks Mayor Vic Vreeland said in a telephone interview Friday that he questions Taylor's sincerity.

"She has no plan to build the bridge; that's all smokescreen," he said.

Vreeland interprets the Supreme Court ruling to mean that no one except for the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority can build the toll bridge.

Infrastructure Ventures Inc. President Bill Bacon said by telephone Friday that he does not see the Turnpike Authority picking up the project.

"They're limited in what they can do until 2012," he said. "The sad part is, if OTA does it, none of the money comes back to the community; it goes back to the state."

But if Bacon regrets anything about trying to build a bridge in south Tulsa, it is the rift it created between Tulsa, Jenks and Bixby.

"It appears that's something that will take quite some time to heal," he said.

Bacon also does not believe that Tulsa can build the bridge in partnership with Jenks and Bixby because of the ruling.

Tulsa, under the leadership of former Mayor Bill LaFortune, initially was supportive of the toll bridge. But attitudes changed when homeowners in south Tulsa objected to the bridge connecting to the two-lane Yale Avenue and questioned a 75-year, no-bid contract with Infrastructure Ventures.

The South Tulsa Citizens Coalition sought the state Supreme Court decision.

Coalition spokesman Michael Covey said the ball is now in Jenks and Bixby's court to approach Tulsa about a financing mechanism and a plan to build a bridge at some point in the future.

"We're not against a bridge," he said. "We're for the responsible building of a bridge."



Susan Hylton 581-8381
susan.hylton@tulsaworld.com