MOUNT VERNON — City officials are asking the East Chestnut neighborhood to help decide the fate of a footbridge over Center Run.
The city closed the footbridge after a section of railing failed.
It will cost $25,000 to repair the railing. However, Safety-Service Director Tanner Salyers said the bridge is not “even remotely up to current standards.”
“It is not ADA-compliant, and we didn’t want to simply just put up some caution tape around it,” he said. “We put large boulders in the way to discourage people from walking across it.”
Salyers recommends keeping the bridge closed while the city seeks public input and determines the bridge’s remaining useful life.
“The administration did not want to make this decision in a vacuum, and I think that public input is needed,” he said.
“So, this is an invitation for the community to come in and save the bridge. If you want the bridge to saved, now is the time to speak.”
He said input should come mainly from those affected.
“Maybe this is bold of me to say, but this is a conversation for that community, and not for the community at-large,” he said.
“If you’re across town and you have opinions about the footbridge, that’s nice. We would entertain those, but this is really more for that neighborhood. It directly impacts them.”
Weighing the options
The city has several options.
• Remove the bridge: $30,000 to $60,000.
Salyers said this eliminates future maintenance and liability and is the most economical long-term option if public input and usage data demonstrate the crossing no longer matters to neighborhood connectivity.
“When we did the active transportation planning some years ago, that was an identified piece of mobility, an asset that needed upgrading,” he said. “But the question is, is that a realistic investment for public dollars?”
• Repair and reopen: $25,000.
This is the cheapest way to restore the connection across Center Run if the bridge is structurally sufficient. However, the repair will last three to 10 years, and future rehabilitation or replacement might be needed.
• Replace the bridge: $250,000 to $450,000 ($281,000-$506,000 by 2029).
Salyers said replacing a bridge triggers state waterway engineers and evaluating marine life.
• Repair now, replace in three years: $306,000 to $531,000.
This reopens the bridge, but the city risks investing money in a structure it will soon replace.
Salyers said estimates are in today’s dollars.
“If we get a quote today, it’s going to be more because we have not planned to replace this bridge now,” he said.
Using a 4-percent cost escalation, a $350,000 bridge today would cost about $394,000 in three years, for a combined $419,000 with repair.
Salyers acknowledged $25,000 will not break the city but said he is not sure it is best spent on a bridge that might not last long.
Additionally, he said he is not sure that “a half a million dollar footbridge project over Center Run is the best use of public dollars.”
Salyers said that to his knowledge, the city does not have recent data about bridge traffic.
What will the neighborhood be like in 50 years?
The footbridge is in Councilman Taylor Jacklin’s ward.
He said that while growing up on Coshocton Avenue, the bridge was a safe gateway to East Elementary School.
“Yes, $250,000 is a lot of money, but that footbridge is used by children in a place where there’s no sidewalks,” he said. “It helps keep them off the busy roads, and it helps them get from Highland Drive, from Teryl, from Chestnut to the other side without having to go on High Street.
“Besides that … if you’ve ever gone on the footbridge, it’s absolutely beautiful to stand there and look both ways down that creek. As we watch more and more of the town change.
“I would hate to see something like that disappear.”
Salyers said the investment is equivalent to the city’s annual sidewalk appropriation.
The neighborhood does not qualify for low-income Community Development Block Grant money. Salyers also does not believe the city would get a Safe Routes to School grant for a footbridge.
Council member Amber Keener said the bridge’s condition has been on engineering’s radar since 2021.
“I believe this is a very expensive project, when $500,000 is a big chunk of our annual budget that I think we could direct in other ways,” she said.
“And while it’s nice to look at it’s connection to the school, if this bridge will last 50 years, from what I’m hearing, I don’t know that the school will be located there in 50 years.”
Keener also questioned what will not get done if the city spends $500,000 on the bridge.
