Remember when there was all the discussion about the million dollar pedestrian bridge DT which Jeff S. (who owns Cherapa) forced the Council to follow through with?
At the Park Board meetings and Council meetings at that time there was lengthy input about how the Corps of Engineers wanted the old Railroad bridge removed but did not want it replaced with anything because in the case of flooding it would be an obstruction in the river which would catch debris and increase the risk of the river overflowing its banks.
This is exactly what was happening at Rotary Park yesterday. So, how did they get approval for this when the Corps balked at the Downtown bridge for the very same reason?
I was at Rotary Park yesterday (Friday).
The new pedestrian bridge over the Sioux River was completely submerged in water with debris deposited all the way across the top of it. Today, (Saturday) now that the water has gone down, you can see larger debris had caught on the bridge abutments obstructing the flow of the flood waters.
The River Greenway was first introduced as a project when Munson was Mayor. During the discussion of Phase I (between 6th and 8th Streets), they wanted to convert the old railroad bridge across the river into a pedestrian bridge. They needed approval from the U.S. Corps of Engineers to make that change. The Corps did not support the idea as any obstruction in the river increases the flooding risk because debris from up river gets caught on the abutments.
The Mayor and the City Council wanted to back away from the bridge portion of phase I, but they were forced to go forward with the pedestrian bridge because Jeff Scherschlight publicly threatened the City with a lawsuit (at a Council meeting) if they did not include the bridge in the Greenway project. He had been promised the bridge would remain during the development of Cherapa Place.
So, if the Corps objected to the bridge remaining across the river DT, how did the City get approval for an even lower profile pedestrian bridge over the river at Rotary Park?