 hree
teams made up of builders, architects and engineers submitted
proposals last week for the
the controversial pedestrian bridge
over the
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Twin towers and cables - Designer: Figg Bridge Builders Builder: Cramer & Associates |
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Missouri River. Earlier this year, the city of Omaha
decided to adopt the design-build concept in order to persuade
companies to submit their ideas for building the bridge within the
cost of a $22 million limit.The original bridge design was sent
out for bids in 2004 but the lowest bid came back at $45 million,
twice the expected cost.
The firms that made the most recent proposals with their
designs staying within budget are:
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Figg Bridge Builders of Denver, CO., designer;
Cramer & Associates of Des Moines, IA., builder
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HNTB Corporation of Kansas City, MO., designer; APAC-Kansas
from Kansas City, KS, builder
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Harrington & Cortelyou of Kansas City, MO., designer;
Jensen Construction Co. from Des Moines, IA., builder.
Bahr, Vermeer & Haecker of Omaha also participated in the
design.
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Twin towers and cables - Designer: HNTB Corporation Builder: APAC-Kansas |
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All
three teams will be interviewed about their proposals on April
27th by a committee. Mayor Mike Fahey will pick one of the designs
then it will be sent to the City Council for approval.
The city of Council Bluffs, the Iowa and Nebraska Roads
Departments, the Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District
and other federal agencies will also have a chance to voice their
opinions but the ultimate decision will come from Omaha.
Many factors will need to be considered including the quality
of materials, construction schedules and past experience with the
companies in addition to the conceptual design.
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Arch with cables - Designer: Harrington & Cortelyou Builder: Jensen Construction Co. |
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Construction could begin this year according to acting Omaha
Parks Director Steve Scarpello.
The bridge, which will rise between Omaha's riverfront and a
proposed nature park in Iowa is meant to be an architecturally
significant landmark and be an exclamation mark for Omaha.
Many citizens have questioned spending the money for a project
such as this but $19 million comes from a federal grant that was
awarded for the project almost six years ago and will be lost if
not used. 
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Suicide attempts... why do we always have to think on the negative side. Think this way, what does it matter where they jump off of, either here or on the other bridges. It will happen no matter what. You can't say just
because it might happen let's not build it. If we always thought that way, nothing in this country would get done. The bridge needs to go on as planned. The cost is never correctly projected, Im sure by the time they get more bids in and so on, the cost will rise. They should have known this far ahead of time. Build it! -
Matt
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