Photo provided An overhead view of the low-head dam in the East Fork White River which would be removed as part of the proposed Riverfront Project.
Bids for east bank work to the ‘Our River…Our Riverfront’ are going to be opened on Tuesday.
They were originally scheduled to be opened this past Tuesday during a Columbus Board of Works meeting, but redevelopment officials said they extended it a week after contractor requests “to allow more time to facilitate comprehensive bids when working with their subcontractors on estimates,” according to Mikala Brown, assistant director of redevelopment.
The board of works meeting when the bids will be opened is on Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the council chambers on the second floor of city hall.
The project is divided up into three parts: work to the west side and east side of the riverfront and then removal of the deteriorating lowhead dam in the East Fork White River.
In-river features initially included in the scope of the ‘Our River…Our Riverfront’ proved too expensive two times over during bid processes last year, so redevelopment officials opted to scale the project back to focus on the removal of the lowhead dam, stabilizing the bank and connecting to the People Trail.
The work to the east side will involve the connection to the People Trail from Mill Race Park over to Water Street, according to city officials.
The west side portion of the project has already started— EDCO is in the process of providing west bank access for eventual lowhead dam removal and bank stabilization, which involves the removal of trees, implementation of a construction access road and filling in a scour area, the spot of the former landfill. The Columbus Redevelopment Commission hired EDCO for that portion in January for an amount not to exceed $454,318. The project is using $5.6 million of Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) funds, and had to be started by March in order to maintain that funding, according to city officials.
Columbus City Council members in December 2023 approved $11.5 million in tax-increment-financing (TIF) funding for the reimagined riverfront. Taylor Brothers had given the project an overall cost estimate of $14 million, which the TIF funding city council approved in late 2023 was based on.
Columbus City Council President Frank Miller, R-District 4, has indicated there is not an interest on behalf of the council in putting forward any more additional funds for the project.
After bids on the project came in higher than expected at the start of 2024, redevelopment officials said they went back to do some value engineering and broke down the project into seven separate bid packages in hopes it would attract different contractors and bring down the cost. But bids came in higher than expected yet another time in fall of 2024, so a guiding team including city council members was put together to re-evaluate the project. Out of that it was determined to seek a project without in-river features.
As of now, $7.4 million in non-TIF dollars have been directed to the remake of the riverfront, made up of $5.6 million in READI funds and $1.8 million from various funding sources including a $1.72 million Next Level Trails Grant from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, along with contributions from Duke Energy and the Columbus Park Foundation. Overall, the city has about $18.9 million in funding sources directed towards the riverfront project.
Redevelopment has already enlisted Jerry Sweeten of Ecosystems Connections Institute to take out the dam, which will begin in 2026. Sweeten will obtain required DNR permits and look for additional grant opportunities, which the project is now eligible for with the removal of the in-water features, city officials said. Sweeten helped with the removal of Edinburgh’s Thompson Mill Dam in 2024.
Hitchcock Design was tasked in January with creating an updated redesign of the riverfront that would remove the existing lowhead dam, stabilize both banks, provide access to the river and connect to the People Trail, but without the in-river features. Some of those included a recreation channel, rock riffle ramp and fish habitat structures.
The riverfront project has been in the works since 2016 and was estimated to cost $8.9 million in 2017. But the price has climbed due to increased construction and labor costs, as well as additional costs associated with environmental mitigation requirements imposed by state and federal regulators, city officials have said. Randy Royer of Hitchcock Design said in January that the project, with the in-water features, has essentially tripled in cost over the past eight years or so.
With the removal of the in-water features, Royer said he didn’t see the project coming in higher than the $18.9 million approved for the project.
