Although the steel infrastructure now is in place, concrete must still be placed on the bridge’s surface and the bridge must be secured to the ground on both sides of the waterway.
“The overall path should be open by Memorial Day, which is ahead of schedule,” he said. “It was supposed to be done sometime next summer, but I expect them to be done by summer.”
The bridge is about 120 feet long, and the biking/walking surface on top of it is about 10 feet wide, the same width as the rest of the path.
It arrived in two sections, each half the bridge’s total length, “and even at that, it was quite lengthy, quite heavy,” Messer said
The project’s Phase I is about a half-mile-long piece between Cleveland and Eaton avenues.
Ultimately, the path is to be a 2.96-mile asphalt strip that will extend in a large curve from the former Champion Paper mill and the Great Miami River to near Millville Avenue. There are hopes it can be extended even beyond that.
The city also has received grant money for future phases.
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