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Waco Suspension Bridge set for new renovations

Posted at 10:21 PM, Sep 05, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-05 23:22:45-04

The Waco Parks and Recreation Department is ready to start their renovation of the historic Waco Suspension Bridge.

They presented their plans for renovation at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Engineering consultant Patrick Sparks laid out the bridges current issues, including old and dangerous decking, broken and warped cables and problems with the bridge’s towers. The renovations would cost the city $5.2 million over the course of 10 years.

While none of the issues were immediately threatening, the parks department said renovating is important to keep the bridge safe for years to come. Parks and Recreation Director John Williams said an update like this is worth every penny.

“It’s a part of Waco,” he said. “It would be remiss of us if we didn’t take an opportunity to say hey if there’s some structural deficiencies, let’s address them now.”

The department planned a renovation process that would break the building into four phases to make costs easier on the city. Council members showed interest in wanting to speed up the process of renovating the bridge to avoid higher costs caused by inflation.

The first phase would begin this year with the replacement of the wooden decking on the bridge to something temporary until a new concrete deck was installed.

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