Here’s what the city’s Horace King overlook bridge would look like. But is it safe?

A proposed Horace King overlook bridge that would protrude from Mott’s Green out into the Chattahoochee River has raised public safety concerns among some in the community.

Mary Kavanaugh, a concerned citizen, brought up the issue on Facebook Monday in response to concerns expressed by some residents about the condition of restrooms at the RiverWalk.

“Speaking of the Riverwalk in another thread and the bathroom situation, how do you think the covered bridge is going to work out on Motts Green in front of (TSYS)?” Kavanaugh posted. “Sounds like a great place for the homeless, graffiti and who knows what else. Is this going to become another failed project that has to be boarded up due to criminal activities?”

Loave Todd, another concerned citizen, responded: “That's a good question you brought up. If there is a cover bridge the homeless would use it especially in the evening/night time for shelter. Others could start painting picture. It may not happen right away but probably would after awhile.”

The proposed bridge — a 60-foot, covered wooden structure — is part of plans for a rehabilitation project to spruce up Mott’s Green, a plot of green space located near TSYS, just north of the 14th Street Pedestrian Bridge. It would be designed as a replica of a bridge built by Horace King, a former slave who built the original Dillingham and 14th Street bridges in Columbus.

King is considered the most respected bridge builder in west Georgia, Alabama, and northeast Mississippi from the 1830s until the 1880s, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

On Tuesday, Council is scheduled to vote on an amendment to the Mott’s Green rehabilitation project that would allocate $107,000 for additional environmental and archeological plans requested by the Georgia Department of Transportation.

In total, GDOT has agreed to fund $800,000 of the rehabilitation project, as long as the city contributes the remaining $200,000.

Despite voting twice for the project in 2016, City Councilman Glenn Davis said he sees some potential problems and believes a public hearing should be held for community input.

“I think we need to have a conversation on this because there are some issues here that need to be addressed before we just throw something up and then all of a sudden, Bam, you’re in a firestorm and you get hit with all these concerns and all these issues,” he said.

When asked why he voted for the project in 2016, Davis said council was presented with a conceptual site plan at the time, and not a detailed drawing of the structure.

He said a recent more intricate drawing presented to Council raised some safety concerns in his mind.

“Not the bridge structure itself,” he said. “I mean, I don’t know, hopefully the architect will design it in a way that it won’t fall apart.

“But I am concerned about safety issues, about what could happen in an enclosed area down there,” he said. “... I mean, we have bathrooms that are being locked up at night. We have bathrooms that are being destroyed. We had the Lake Oliver bathroom burn down. We had the Mott house burn down.”

Davis mentioned a recent fire at a playground on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near the A. J. McClumg YMCA.

He also referred to a recent presentation made by Deputy City Manager Lisa Goodwin about 58 facilities that landed on the city’s “F List” because of dilapidated conditions.

“We just had conversation about all the parks and facilities and infrastructure in the city and the desperate need for rehabilitation,” he said. “We don’t even put enough money in the budget to maintain any of this. So, now the question is, ‘How are we going to maintain another structure?’”

City Planning Director Rick Jones said the the final design of the bridge is not complete and some security measures can be included to address the concerns.

“There’s a way we can actually go in there and put one of those roll-down doors on it to close it off at night to keep folks from staying out there,” he said.

Other than that, he doesn’t foresee any problems. “It’s just another extension of the RiverWalk itself,” he said.

This story was originally published March 26, 2018 at 3:51 PM with the headline "Here’s what the city’s Horace King overlook bridge would look like. But is it safe?."