(about time)

Looking great!

Found this photo and caption in the Sunday Dispatch...

 

Spanning the Scioto:

A 174-foot-long section of the Main Street bridge reaches over the Scioto River from its east bank Downtown.  Construction crews were working Friday to position pins in the half-million-pound section, which is just 40 percent of the complete arch.  The bridge is to open in October 2009.

 

 

I only wish that the development plan for the downtown area Scioto riverfront were more commercially focused and less park-focused.  The most valuable real estate in Columbus, and we squander its value by making more sleeping grounds for the homeless.  Short-sighted in the extreme, in my opinion.

I disagree.  Turning the Scioto into a recreational riverfront will greatly increase the value of property within a walking distance, which is a far greater amount of property than the park will take up itself.

The most valuable real estate in Columbus, and we squander its value by making more sleeping grounds for the homeless.

 

Actually, we squandered it decades ago by putting all our government buildings along the river. Honestly, even if the city tried to establish a retail/commercial corridor along the river, there wouldn't be enough space to put anything worthwhile. In addition, the downtown retail market isn't what it used to be. I doubt we'd see anything like San Antonio's Riverwalk along the Scioto. I think creating a string of parkland along the river is the best way to go about redeveloping our waterfront, especially since it should provide greater room for our many outdoor events, fairs, and concerts, such as Red White and Boom, the Jazz and Rib Fest, and Festival Latino.

 

Turning the Scioto into a recreational riverfront will greatly increase the value of property within a walking distance, which is a far greater amount of property than the park will take up itself.

 

That would be fantastic.

That big arch on the Main Street Bridge is getting closer to completion...

 

Spanning the Scioto:

A 174-foot-long section of the Main Street bridge reaches over the Scioto River from its east bank Downtown.  Construction crews were working Friday to position pins in the half-million-pound section, which is just 40 percent of the complete arch.  The bridge is to open in October 2009.

 

 

 

Photo from Wednesday, July 9, 2008 Dispatch:

 

Photo from the Columbus Underground:

 

It'd be hilarious if the arch fell RIGHT NOW!

 

Or not.

Last section of arch added to new Main Street bridge

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 - 2:53 PM

By Robert Vitale THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

The last piece of the next generation of Columbus postcards was lifted into place this afternoon. Workers hoisted a 75-ton, 63-foot section of steel arch atop the new Main Street bridge.  Now comes the hard part: It will take 3,600 bolts to hold it in place.

 

The new bridge linking Franklinton and Downtown will open in late 2009.  It features a 411-foot inclined arch — it leans to the north — and a pedestrian walkway that’s separated from the three lanes of road surface.

 

The arch has been erected in five separate pieces over the last month.  Assistant Public Service Director Mary Carran Webster said the bridge is now 71 percent completed.  The project is within its $44.1 million construction budget, she said.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/07/15/bridge15.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=101

 

 

Now it's time to have the bridge sponsored by Build-A-Bear!

Town Street bridge closed

ODOT inspection shows structure is 'breaking up'

Wednesday, July 23, 2008 - 3:20 AM

By Elizabeth Gibson, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

The 90-year-old Town Street bridge over the Scioto River closed six months early yesterday, after the Ohio Department of Transportation determined the bridge might not be safe.  "It's breaking up," said Mary Carran Webster, assistant director for the Columbus Public Service Department.  "None of the engineers could ensure the structural integrity of the bridge."

 

Public Service Director Mark Kelsey made the call to shut down the bridge beginning at 7 p.m., after receiving a quarterly report from ODOT engineers.  The city had planned to tear down the bridge in January to begin the construction of a $28.5 million replacement.

 

A bulge in one of the support arches, a crumbling foundation exposing steel bars, cracks in the surface and a loose railing made ODOT lower the bridge's structural integrity rating to a two from a three on a scale of zero to nine, according to the ODOT report.  "A zero means it's fallen in the river, a one means it's imminent and a two means it needs to be closely monitored or closed," ODOT spokeswoman Nancy Burton said.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/07/23/town_bridge.ART_ART_07-23-08_B1_MBAQQ2E.html?sid=101

 

City closing Town Street bridge

Business First of Columbus

Tuesday, July 22, 2008 - 4:58 PM EDT

 

The city is permanently closing a 90-year-old Columbus bridge, effective Tuesday evening, because of safety concerns.  Originally constructed in 1917, the Town Street bridge stretches across the Scioto River and carries an estimated 9,850 vehicles and a thousand pedestrians every weekday, officials said.  Bridge inspectors with the Ohio Department of Transportation on July 18 noticed minor movement on the bridge deck and downgraded the bridge's structural condition score from 3 to 2 -- the state mandates bridges with ratings of 2 or less should be closed or closely monitored.

 

Kelsey chose to close the bridge, versus monitoring conditions and reducing load restrictions, in part due to the city's experience six years earlier, he said.  The city shut down the deteriorating Main Street bridge in 2002 after the city first imposed weight restrictions.  In weeks before the closing, however, few complied.  The Town Street bridge is scheduled to be replaced with a $28.5 million concrete rib-arch bridge, the city said.  The replacement bridge, to be called Rich Street bridge, is anticipated to open to traffic in late 2011, officials said.

 

Work on a new Main Street bridge began in September 2006 and it is scheduled to open late next year or in early 2010.

 

Read more at http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2008/07/21/daily16.html?f=et58&ana=e_du

 

Just thought I would put a few updated pics up of the Main Street Bridge. Looks good!!!!!

 

 

YAY!

Great pics.  That tilted arch design is starting to look pretty good.  With the Town Street bridge out of commission, the Main Street bridge can't get finished too quickly.

 

On a side note, wasn't there some other posts about the most recent photos here previously?  I thought I saw some a few days earlier.  Also, I noticed that the overall number of posts in Central & Southeast Ohio projects went down from over 3250 to 3218.  And I didn't see any projects moved to the Completed Projects section.  Just wondering.

?

 

I moved some of the older posts to the Completed Section along with Huntington news and etc a while back (like a month ago, I believe).  Maybe that's it???

Hey everyone.  I'm new.  And 'Urban Outdoorsman' if you will.  Couldn't resist posting a few pics.

 

 

 

That is a smallmouth bass, for those who didn't know :-)

Welcome! That photo is fantastic, btw.

 

Looks like the fish is staring at Miranova...no wonder his mouth is agape like that! ;-)

Hey everyone.  I'm new.  And 'Urban Outdoorsman' if you will.  Couldn't resist posting a few pics.

 

 

 

 

I have a question if anyone can answer that would be great. Could you tell me about tower on the right in between the brick apartments or whatever and the tower kinda beside the point of view? Thanks again.

 

 

Mushijobah: Great fish and great photo!  Welcome to the forum.

 

cavscrew1: About those buildings to the right of the fish...the brick building is the Waterford Tower (condo tower) and the building at the edge of the photo is the Miranova residential tower.  The gray building in between is the Franklin County Government tower.  Its part of the Franklin County government center on South High Street.

 

 

Welcome... and I never knew the Scioto had small mouth bass :wow: the only thing I've ever caught was blue gill!

Some riverfront construction photos taken yesterday.

 

<img src="http://www.columbusunderground.com/archives/rs2008_01.jpg">

 

<img src="http://www.columbusunderground.com/archives/rs2008_02.jpg">

 

Columbus is perfecting the art of building grand bridges that cover short spans.  Lane Ave bridge seemed to start the trend.

cavscrew1: About those buildings to the right of the fish...the brick building is the Waterford Tower (condo tower) and the building at the edge of the photo is the Miranova residential tower. The gray building in between is the Franklin County Government tower. Its part of the Franklin County government center on South High Street.

This is late but thanks for answering my question.

Construction photos from the project website: http://www.sciotomile.com

 

EDIT: Photos no longer at website

Looks like things are moving along nicely!

Small events to seek big draw on Scioto Mile

Riverfront park's plans call for range of activities beyond notable festivals

Thursday, February 26, 2009 - 3:23 AM

By Mark Ferenchik, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

 

From his perch in Miranova, Harrison Smith will watch the Scioto Mile park take shape the next two years, curving north along the riverfront.  "I'd like to look down at my window and see a thousand people there every night," the chairman of the Downtown Commission said.  They'd be enjoying concerts in the new band shell, eating at a planned restaurant and strolling along a promenade that will follow the river.  "Then we'd have a winner," Smith said.

 

To attract those people, the city is working with the Columbus Downtown Development Corp., the project's manager, to create events and activities to continually draw people to the riverfront.  They include night concerts and small combos playing at lunchtime, and family movie night, said Alan McKnight, Columbus' recreation and parks director.

 

"The concept is to try to have a number of things on an ongoing basis, not necessarily big events," McKnight said.  McKnight wants to bring several summer festivals back to the riverfront in two years.  The Columbus Arts Festival and Festival Latino were held in other locations last year.  The Jazz & Rib Fest was held at Bicentennial Park last year, but it and Festival Latino were cut from the city's budget this year.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/02/26/SCIMILE.ART_ART_02-26-09_B1_TVD1PHG.html?sid=101

^And here are the graphics from the above Dispatch article "Small events to seek big draw on Scioto Mile: Riverfront park's plans call for range of activities beyond notable festivals".

 

 

A band shell and 70-foot-high fountain will anchor Bicentennial Park

at the southern end of the Scioto Mile, slated for completion in 2011.

 

For more information on the project, go to www.sciotomile.com.

With the proposed Rich street bridge, are they still planning to rebuild the Town Street Bridge? The picture just says it will be demolished. This will make an interesting intersection where Town Street meets Washington Blvd. and the proposed Rich Street Bridge.

Wow, nice!

The park looks like a nice refinement on what is currently there.  The bridge configuration looks strange.  Personally I am not sold on Rich St crossing rather than Town St. Jut looks lopsided.  I'm all for asymmetry, but functionality should come first.

Agreed, which is why I'm so against the Rich St. bridge even being built once the Town St. bridge is taken down. Let's use that $30 million for other projects which will actually help with revitalization. Hopefully the new two-way Civic Center Drive will be comfortable for cyclists. Also doubting that "a" restaurant along the river will do much of anything to attract many people.

 

I'm still skeptical about this plan. Parks like this are great near a developed urban environment, but neighboring Front St. offers nothing save for Danny's Deli. Main has the Main Bar. That's pretty much it. There's nothing on the periphery to draw you here. They'll need kiosks to direct visitors to/from High St. and Gay St.

Few will miss Town Street bridge after razing

Town Street span, once a civic hot spot, now obsolete

Monday, March 16, 2009 - 3:14 AM

By Debbie Gebolys, The Columbus Dispatch

 

The decline and fall of the 90-year-old Town Street bridge reaches its final chapter today.  Mayor Michael B. Coleman and other officials will gather this morning at the bridge over the Scioto River for the beginning of its demolition.  The bridge was closed last summer after inspectors deemed it unsafe.

 

The closing was only the last humiliation for the bridge, which connects a dead-end street Downtown to vacant land near COSI on the Franklinton side.  It's been sandwiched by orange barrels for several years while work has been under way to rebuild the Main Street bridge and create the Scioto Mile parklands along Civic Center Drive.

 

By 2012, a $36.4 million replacement is to open to pedestrians and motorists.  The new bridge will be realigned on the east side, bypassing Town Street by a city block.  The next-generation bridge, expected to last a century, will be the Rich Street bridge.

 

Read more at http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/03/16/bridge_gone.ART_ART_03-16-09_B3_F8D8CJU.html?sid=101

Hmmmm.... with the new Columbus Commons development, isn't that suppose to open Town street as a though street?

I think Town can still be a nice ped/bike friendly street without the extra auto traffic that a re-opened bridge would provide.

From the Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Columbus Dispatch

Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman gets instructions from Jason Matthews of Kokosing Construction on how to strike the first blow in demolishing the Town Street bridge.  The mayor led a ceremony yesterday morning marking the start of the bridge's destruction.  It will be replaced by a $36.4 million bridge running from Rich Street over the Scioto River to the developing RiverSouth District.  That bridge will carry vehicular and pedestrian traffic and is scheduled to open in 2012.

 

With the proposed Rich street bridge, are they still planning to rebuild the Town Street Bridge? The picture just says it will be demolished. This will make an interesting intersection where Town Street meets Washington Blvd. and the proposed Rich Street Bridge.

You can see by the above picture that Mayor Coleman is serious about demolishing the Town Street Bridge!  Once gone, the Town Street Bridge would not be replaced.  This would leave the new Main Street Bridge and the soon-to-be Rich Street Bridge as the remaining bridges here. 

 

City begins razing Town Street bridge

Business First of Columbus, March 16, 2009

 

Come August, Columbus’ nearly century-old Town Street bridge will be no more.

 

City officials on Monday began the demolition of the 90-year-old Columbus bridge, which stretches across the Scioto River. The bridge was shut down in July after state officials determined its structural condition warranted it be closed or closely monitored.

The Town Street Bridge is coming down. 

 

Is that pic before or after the demo... I can't tell the difference ;)

Is that pic before or after the demo... I can't tell the difference ;)

 

LMFAO

I love what's happening down there--the new town homes ought to provide some much needed density. It'll be interesting to see what sort of supporting retail will show up. I'd love to see an urban Trader Joe's, or better yet, some bona fide independent bakeries, green grocers and meat markets. The reality, for the short term, will likely be an expectation of residents to drive up to Thurber Village or down to the Brewery District to pick up groceries.

Franklin County OKs grants for Scioto Mile, other projects

Business First of Columbus

Wednesday, April 8, 2009, 4:31pm

 

Franklin County Commissioners this week approved dedicating nearly $2 million in grant funding to three projects in the area, including the multimillion-dollar transformation of the downtown Columbus riverfront. The commissioners laid out $1.17 million to the Columbus Downtown Development Corp. through a so-called community partnership grant for the $38 million Scioto Mile project, a public-private partnership whose chief sponsors are the city of Columbus and American Electric Power Company Inc.  The appropriation is part of a four-year, $5 million commitment commissioners made to the project.

 

Commissioners appropriated $1.5 million last year and are set to give about $1.17 million this and the next two years, said Amy Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Development Corp. Construction of the Scioto Mile, which includes improvements to Bicentennial Park and features that will make Civic Center Drive more accommodating for pedestrians, is a key piece of the run-up to the city’s 2012 bicentennial.

 

Read more at http://columbus.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2009/04/06/daily21.html?surround=lfn

Bike trailin' with the boy:

 

 

What a difference 2 years makes:

 

Nice video Kingfish and son.  Very good parental advice to avoid the riverfront geese and their "by-products"!

Going from the Kingfish's bike tour video of North Bank down the river to the Town Street Bridge.  Or what's left of it. 

 

 

I seriously will not miss this eyesore... It was a beautiful bridge back in the day though.....

NBC 4 Digs Into Over-Budget Main Street Bridge

By Denise Yost, Managing Editor, nbc4i.com

Published: May 20, 2009

 

COLUMBUS -- Seven years after downtown Columbus’ Main Street Bridge closed, the city is still more than a year away from completing a new bridge.  The cost is also ten of millions of dollars more than early-reported estimates.  In 2002, Columbus city leaders deemed the Main Street Bridge too dangerous to stay open to traffic. 

 

That same year, Business First reported that a replacement bridge with an inclined steel arch would cost an estimated $19.5 million.  The Columbus Dispatch later reported that the $19.5 million estimate came from engineers, but in 2004, a new estimate pegged the cost at $29.2 million.  Then, in 2006, the project was bid out and the lowest construction bid came back at $44.1 million.

 

Now, in May 2009, with design and inspection costs included in the $2 million in construction cost overruns, Columbus Public Service Director Mark Kelsey explained, “You have a bridge that’s costing in the neighborhood of $54 million to date,“ Kelsey said.

 

Kelsey, who didn’t work for the city in 2002, insists the original estimate was actually $17 million—even lower than the reported $19.5 million estimate.  But, he said, such a figure was premature and unauthorized, released by a bridge designer trying to get his design chosen.  “He was radically wrong obviously, and was subsequently terminated from the project,“ Kelsey said.

 

READ MORE AND VIDEO LINK AT: http://www.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/local/article/nbc_4_digs_into_over-budget_main_street_bridge/15938/

Ouch.

 

Future term, though, it will be iconic, or at the very least, draw eyes southward.

Update on the Scioto Mile riverfront redevelopment from http://www.sciotomile.com/inside-the-mile

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

And from http://www.downtowncolumbus.com/progress/scioto-mile

 

"Civic Center Drive is no longer a one-way passage.  The two-way thoroughfare is now open from Broad Street all the way to Town Street, serving north and south bound drivers.  When all is said and done, it will have on-street parking, planters and trees."