A $2.5 million restoration project for downtown Columbus is one step closer to fruition. Sealed bids to begin construction on the old river bridge rehabilitation will be opened at City Hall Thursday morning. Project manager Kevin Stafford appeared before the Columbus City Council Tuesday evening and asked the board to allow the project to move forward.
“We will literally be opening the bids Thursday,” Stafford said. “We will have a good idea of whom the lowest bidder is before we walk out the door. We will not be able to officially award the contract until all of the paper work has been reviewed. I would like to ask the board to approve awarding the contract to the lowest bidder, if it meets our funding and is approved by the engineer.”
The council voted unanimously to accept Stafford’s request.
According to Stafford, the number of submitted bids will not be known until they are opened Thursday.
The project is being funded by a $133,000 matching contribution from the city, Lowndes County and the Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau. The remainder of the project will be funded by a Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) grant.
The project’s funding has been controversial since its inception in 2006 when the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors pledged to contribute half of the $400,000 required to receive the MDOT grant. The pledge came after the city applied for the bridge restoration grant from MDOT. The City of Columbus committed its share to the project but MDOT funds soon came up short.
However, the state found funding for the project in 2010. The city announced it was moving forward with the project and expected the county to follow its lead. The announcement was met with resistance from some of the supervisors, who claimed the economic climate was too fragile for recreational spending. City and county governments voted to request funding help from the CVB in April 2010. CVB board members expressed frustration over the lack of conversation concerning the request.
The proposed restoration was also the source of a physical altercation between City of Columbus Mayor Robert Smith and Ward Five Councilman Kabir Karriem.
The old river bridge rehabilitation will renovate the old Highway 82 bridge and utilize the structure as part of the Columbus Riverwalk by developing it into a pedestrian walkway.
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