Thursday morning, Gary Weathers of Weathers Construction took a half-hour to join a tour of the Riverwalk connector, a 900-foot span of concrete and wood that links the Riverwalk with the Columbus Soccer Complex.
Despite less-than-ideal weather and some tricky construction challenges inherent in a project located in sensitive wetland areas, Weathers could afford the time away from his duties as the project’s contractor.
Weathers said his crew expects to have completed construction by the end of the month — well ahead of the April 15 contract deadline.
“We had until then, but we want to finish as soon as we can,” Weathers said as he joined a tour of the project with Lowndes County Board of Supervisors President Harry Sanders, project engineer Kevin Stafford, Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority director Roger Short and Greg Lewis, who will move into Short’s position at CLRA in January.
Only a small section of concrete has yet to be poured and the rest of the work involves mainly putting finishing touches here and there. The walkway connects the Riverwalk to the northwest end of the soccer complex.
The most impressive feature of the connector is a 75-foot raised wooden walkway that follows the creek.
“We really wanted to design the path in a way to save as many of the old trees as possible,” Stafford noted.
Preserving the area’s natural beauty, Weathers said, was one of the greatest challenges.
“Just trying to get in the equipment you need into some of this places was pretty hard,” he said. “Try bringing in a 350-foot crane in a spot like this — you can see what I mean.”
Once construction is completed, the only task left will be landscaping the area.
Stafford said that the connector won’t be open to the public until the spring, which will allow the landscaping to mature.
Once finished, the connector will not only provide walkers access between the soccer complex and the Riverwalk, it will also serve as a convenient overflow parking option for big events at either venue.
Work began on the $600,000 project in August. The bulk of that money came from a $480,000 Mississippi Department of Transportation grant, with the county and the city contributing $93,923 each in matching funds. The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau and Columbus Light and Water provided the lighting, which came to a little more than $45,000.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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