May 11, 2006 -- Construction could begin this fall on the 200-foot-tall twin spires to suspend the long-delayed pedestrian bridge over the Missouri River. 

More than nine years after the idea first surfaced, six years after federal funding was secured and two years after the original plan collapsed due to finances, Mayor Mike Fahey selected a team to build the 3,000-foot span. 

“It was been a long journey with its share of advancements and setbacks to get to this point,” Fahey said in making his selection from among the three proposals. 

The $22 million span will connect nearly 150 miles of bike and pedestrian paths that stretch from south of Blair through Council Bluffs and Iowa to the Missouri Border. 

An aggressive construction schedule sets a completion date for November 2008 for the span that will sparkle at night as part of the Omaha skyline. Federal permits and environmental studies must be completed before construction crews can begin work. 

From the beginning, the bridge sparked debate over whether the project, which is largely funded with federal money, is a proper expenditure or a classic example of a pork-barrel project. The project also will receive some state and private funds. 

Fahey and Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan said today that the completed bridge will win over doubters and be an important architectural addition to the riverfront. 

“I can assure residents of Omaha and Council Bluffs that upon completion, this bridge will be the icon that we have been looking for over the past few years,” Fahey said.
Hanafan said the bridge will be “an economic development tool for all of us.”

 Bicycle enthusiasts predict the bridge will be an attraction for “bicyclists from all over the world,” Hanafan said.  

Two Kansas City are firms were selected for the project. HNTB of Kansas City, Mo., is the designer and APAC of Kansas City, Kan., is the general contractor. The team was selected partly because of its joint experience with cable-stay suspension bridges in Milwaukee, Wichita, Kan., and Boston.

 After the original plan produced bids at more than double the anticipated cost in 2004, the city began to look for a way to build the span without using local tax revenues. Instead of seeking bids for a predetermined design, the city asked for a design-build proposal in which teams propose a design and promise to build it for a set price.

 The delays were expensive. More than $4 million has already been spent.

 Fahey said he and Hanafan are close to reaching their target of $5 million in financing from private institutions, corporations and individuals.

 They already have commitments for about $3.5 million, Fahey said, and he is confident additional commitments will be in hand when the final contract goes before the City Council in June.

 In making his pick, Fahey stayed close to the original plan for a curved suspension bridge from a plaza north of the National Park Service building to a landing on the levee in Council Bluffs.

 John K. Green, a citizen member of the review committee, said the committee chose this design because its two towers best served to symbolize the partnership between the two states and cities. 

That is one reason the two-tower idea was superior to a proposal to use an arch to suspend the bridge over the river. The HNTB design also took the Iowa landing all the way to the levee, making it more beneficial to Council Bluffs, Green said.

 Hanafan said the Bluffs is counting on the bridge to stimulate the kind of development along the Iowa riverfront that has occurred in Nebraska.

 In 1997, Hanafan stood with then-Mayor Hal Daub and then-U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey as they launched the back-to-the-river concept. At that time, Hanafan said, the Asarco battery plant stood where Rick’s Café Boatyard now is, the old Union Pacific shops lay vacant and a junkyard greeted travelers coming from Eppley Airfield to downtown Omaha.