The city is giving up on the idea of installing a pedestrian bridge across the spillway for Birge Pond as part of this year’s $300,000 project to improve the park.
After engineers determined the century-old dam at the Hoppers-Birge Pond Nature Preserve couldn’t support the planned walkway, they hoped to create a pedestrian span below the dam.
But Park Director Ed Swicklas said that creating the bridge would cost $100,000 or more because of the need to erect concrete supports in the low, swampy area.
That’s too great a share of the limited budget available, park officials said.
There will likely be enough cash to pay for the $18,000 design for a new span, however, leaving the door open to constructing it later.
“I don’t think we should abandon the idea,” Swicklas said.
The overall project consists of remaking the existing parking lot, adding handicapped accessible paths along the south end of the pond, putting in picnic tables and installing some parking along Ambler Road. Improvements to the old gatehouse slab that juts into the pond slightly are also planned.
With a bridge, it would be possible to walk around the pond without traipsing down to Ambler Road and then back up to the water.
“I would like to have that be a loop because it’s a pain to go around” to the road, said Cindy Donovan, a park commissioner.
Swicklas said the pedestrian bridge can be put on the five-year project list next spring so that it can receive funding in the future.
The city hopes to complete the Hoppers-Birge Pond project this year.
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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
14 comments:
Talk about a bridge to nowhere
Art, you are a wonderful manager.
Whats next?
Ms. Dumb-o-van:
This should be on the "no,never year project list".
"Art, you are a wonderful manager"
Obviously a much better one than you would be ~ at least he knows what he's talking about.
I took my kids down to the dam area last summer and was amazed by all the broken glass covering the ground everywhere I looked. We had to leave as I was concerned for their safety. The dam area is a nice secluded area that seems to attract a lot of kids drinking and smashing bottles. I think that this problem should be addressed before sinking too much money into improvements that will get destroyed.
8:20
Art is managing Bristol into stagnation.
Mayor Ward is proving to be the wrong choice these days.
What is Ward doing wrong here? This project would be a squandering of tax payer money.
"Art is managing Bristol into stagnation."
With the teetering economy, out of control gas prices and plunging real estate value, a little bit of stagnation is a very good thing ~
Mayor Ward is definitely proving to be right choice these days.
Mayor Ward hates the Hoppers, hates the Hoppers committee, hates the fact that the Hoppers Committee supported his nemesis, and at one point wanted to make it a golf course. Thanks god this project was started prior to him getting into office or it all would have been doomed. Its management by scorched earth policy, that is for sure.
If the Hoppers were a golf course, you would still maintain the serenity of the lake and walking trails intertwined with the course. There would be no garbage and the course would provide cash flow to the city.
I believe this is a better utilization of the area than its current use as an area for keg parties, all terrain vehicles and a spot to let your dog take a dump.
Hold onto that tree you may need to eat it. All your money is going toward taxes.
Golf courses everywhere are losing money, especially those run by municipalities.
Check it out.
Thank God no one listened to Ward.
A golf course would have been a terrific use of this space...too bad nobody listened to Ward.
Wasn't there an article in the news today that a local community was giving up the golf course to a developer?
They ain't the money makers they used to be, and we do not have a good record of eficient operations.
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