Pedestrian bridge at Historic Arkansas Riverwalk in Pueblo receives a facelift
Feb. 27—A pedestrian bridge that harkens back a hundred years just got a much-needed facelift as part of Historic Arkansas Riverwalk winter upgrades along the river channel at Pueblo's Union Avenue.
"That particular bridge was built and installed back in 2000 when the riverwalk was built, so it is 21 years old already and it was really in need of the repairs we did make," said Daisy Jensen, operations manager for the riverwalk authority. "The bridge has a striking resemblance to the types and styles that used to span across the Arkansas River before the (1921) flood.
"There used to be a bridge that spanned across Union that has a lot of the same characteristics as that bridge," Jensen said.
The bridge work during the past month has included sandblasting and repainting which had to be done while the channel was empty so scaffolding could be used and workers could avoid getting debris from the sandblasting in the water.
Workers will finish up with concrete seal work once the weather warms up.
"We had to work really hard to get the bridge painted during the period of maintenance when the channel has been drained because the weather just didn't cooperate with us. But we did get it done," Jensen said.
"Every time we empty the channel we have an ongoing project to replace some of the coping stone along the edge of the channel with a concrete replacement. The original stones are falling and cracking so we've been working every year to replace a section at a time.
"The section we replaced this year is right in front of Brues Alehouse," she said.
That work will be done this week and water will return to the riverwalk channel by Monday.
"It usually takes anywhere from a day to a day-and-a-half to refill the channel. Pueblo Water is great and they work with us to help open the gates, turn on the water and monitor the filling process," Jensen said.
It is too early to tell whether the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk will be able to return to is usual busy summertime events and activities this year.
Many events were canceled last year because of COVID-19 restrictions.
"One can hope that we are able to invite the community down and do some fun things. We've got our fingers crossed because if we can do that it's going to mean a whole lot of other good things going on," Jensen said.
For details contact the authority office at 595-0242 or log on to puebloriverwalk.org
Chieftain reporter Tracy Harmon covers business and Fremont County news. She can be reached by email at tharmon@chieftain.com or via Twitter at twitter.com/tracywumps.
