Crews continue to put the finishing touches on the roughly $11 million project to convert the historic 5th Street Bridge from vehicle traffic to a pedestrian walkway.
The design work began about five years ago, but construction did not begin until 2020. Much of the funding for the project is from the Transportation Investment Act, the one-cent special sales voters approved in 2012.
It was hoped the project would be complete by the end of 2021, so it could be opened for Masters Week 2022 activities.
Hameed Malik, director of engineering for the city of Augusta, said COVID-19 related supply chain issues have caused delays, particularly for materials and fabric that will be used to create shade shelters, and issues with paint.
“So, they’re working on the paint, because paint needs to have a certain temperature, can’t do in the cold weather,” he said. “Plus, we want to make sure about the paint color. That was another challenge. We couldn’t get the original color we wanted, so we worked with architects to kind of substitute that.”
Malik said the goal of the project was to preserve the historic integrity of the bridge while converting it to a pedestrian walkway.
A shade plaza will be located at the point where the bridge used to open to allow steamboats through. A history walk showing the bridge’s history will be added.
Safety features have also been added. One of the biggest concerns was the historic metal railing. It was too low and too open to prevent children and adults from crawling through or over to jump in the river.
“We added an additional railing. We preserved what was there and kind of aesthetically improved it, but we added another railing to that. Yeah, that was the discussion we had safety-wise. All those safety features are there so nobody slips through it and jumps over it,” Malik said.
Security was also considered. The department chose to use light poles with decorative, LED light fixtures.
“We need to have enough lighting for the safety reason to because the bridge is not only open for daytime,” Malik said. “We’re looking into, I had to check with my staff, to add the security camera and somehow we can connect that to the sheriff.”
Among the esthetic touches will be a Kid Zone with modern playground equipment and a maze, benches with charging stations, colored concrete to replace the asphalt and lights illuminating the underside of the bridge.
Malik said the goal is to create a parklike setting to draw people to the bridge.
“I think that is needed to keep that balance and keep the city attractive for all walks of life,” he said. “Also, if you have enough attraction, instead of going to Savannah, people may say ‘Let’s go to Augusta for the day’ because we do have a river that the city has not explored to the extent we should.”
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
