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The prospect that Granite Falls will receive the remaining $512,000 it requires to rehabilitate the iconic Roebling Suspension Bridge is much brighter than it was just days earlier.
Late last week, the City of Granite Falls was informed that a $512,000 grant request has been ranked number one on a list of 11 State Scenic Byway applications that, if used in conjunction with a $512,000 bonding appropriation from the state, would give Granite Falls the entire sum required for an estimated $1.024 million Pedestrian Bridge rehabilitation project.
“To hear that the project is listed number one in the state is tremendous news,” said Granite Falls City Manager Bill Lavin. “We worked with the Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission (UMVRDC) in putting an application together, and they did an excellent job.”
According to the UMVRDC’s Kristi Fernholz, the State Scenic Byway Commission ranks the applications before sending them to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The FHWA ultimately determines which projects get funded, but typically it is the top 3-5 grants listed by the state commission that are chosen as grant recipients, she said.
Minnesota Scenic Byways Coordinator, Holly Slagle said that one of the core precepts for ranking applications is based upon a project’s ability to manage or protect intrinsic qualities of locations along the scenic byway –– whether scenic, historic, cultural, natural, recreational and/or archeological. In addition, a project’s readiness, time frame for implementation and impact on quality of life also plays a role.
“It is a great project,” she said. I would be surprised if it was not funded.
According to Lavin, city officials have already performed significant amounts of preliminary work. Various funding sources for the restoration of the Roebling Suspension Bridge have been sought since mid-2005, he said, but added that it wasn’t until 2010 that the legislature’s commitment to fund $512,000, or half of the estimated project cost, that the ball got rolling.
Language in the bill stipulated that matching funds would need to be in place before the project was to proceed and that any supplementary grants had to come from a source other than the State of Minnesota.
With a requirement that the bonding dollars be used by the end of 2013, Granite Falls is approaching crunch time. The rejection of a $150,000 Federal Recreation Trail Program grant this past July has only increased the matter’s urgency.
Should Granite Falls be awarded the Scenic Byway grant, Lavin said that the improvements to the bridge will be substantial.
In recent decades, both the structure and the piers of the bridge have leaned further and further to the west –– though cables were attached following the 2001 flood to help slow the progression. Planned repairs include work on the bridge’s piers to vertically re-set them,raising the east end of the bridge to minimize the high water impact, sandblasting the steel, replacing the concrete decking and repainting the entire structure as well as other rehabilitation work--including the possible lighting of the bridge.
By revitalizing the existing structure rather than building new, Lavin says the city is able to preserve the unique and historic Roebling Suspension Bridge for many years to come. Nearly eighty years after it was originally constructed, in 1935, it continues to reflect the methods of spun cable of suspension bridge pioneer, John A. Roebling, the designer of the famous Brooklyn Bridge.
While the likelihood is promising that Granite Falls will receive the grant for the Pedestrian Bridge, both Slagle and Fernholz cautioned that there are a number of variables still in play and that nothing is set in stone.
The community will likely hear as to whether it was a awarded the grant in three to six months. In the meantime, the city will continue to seek other funding sources, Lavin said. Meanwhile, plans and specifications for the bridge rehab work will continue so that when funding is available, the rehab work can proceed as quickly as possible.
The prospect that Granite Falls will receive the remaining $512,000 it requires to rehabilitate the iconic Roebling Suspension Bridge is much brighter than it was just days earlier.
Late last week, the City of Granite Falls was informed that a $512,000 grant request has been ranked number one on a list of 11 State Scenic Byway applications that, if used in conjunction with a $512,000 bonding appropriation from the state, would give Granite Falls the entire sum required for an estimated $1.024 million Pedestrian Bridge rehabilitation project.
“To hear that the project is listed number one in the state is tremendous news,” said Granite Falls City Manager Bill Lavin. “We worked with the Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission (UMVRDC) in putting an application together, and they did an excellent job.”
According to the UMVRDC’s Kristi Fernholz, the State Scenic Byway Commission ranks the applications before sending them to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The FHWA ultimately determines which projects get funded, but typically it is the top 3-5 grants listed by the state commission that are chosen as grant recipients, she said.
Minnesota Scenic Byways Coordinator, Holly Slagle said that one of the core precepts for ranking applications is based upon a project’s ability to manage or protect intrinsic qualities of locations along the scenic byway –– whether scenic, historic, cultural, natural, recreational and/or archeological. In addition, a project’s readiness, time frame for implementation and impact on quality of life also plays a role.
“It is a great project,” she said. I would be surprised if it was not funded.
According to Lavin, city officials have already performed significant amounts of preliminary work. Various funding sources for the restoration of the Roebling Suspension Bridge have been sought since mid-2005, he said, but added that it wasn’t until 2010 that the legislature’s commitment to fund $512,000, or half of the estimated project cost, that the ball got rolling.
Language in the bill stipulated that matching funds would need to be in place before the project was to proceed and that any supplementary grants had to come from a source other than the State of Minnesota.
With a requirement that the bonding dollars be used by the end of 2013, Granite Falls is approaching crunch time. The rejection of a $150,000 Federal Recreation Trail Program grant this past July has only increased the matter’s urgency.
Should Granite Falls be awarded the Scenic Byway grant, Lavin said that the improvements to the bridge will be substantial.
In recent decades, both the structure and the piers of the bridge have leaned further and further to the west –– though cables were attached following the 2001 flood to help slow the progression. Planned repairs include work on the bridge’s piers to vertically re-set them,raising the east end of the bridge to minimize the high water impact, sandblasting the steel, replacing the concrete decking and repainting the entire structure as well as other rehabilitation work--including the possible lighting of the bridge.
By revitalizing the existing structure rather than building new, Lavin says the city is able to preserve the unique and historic Roebling Suspension Bridge for many years to come. Nearly eighty years after it was originally constructed, in 1935, it continues to reflect the methods of spun cable of suspension bridge pioneer, John A. Roebling, the designer of the famous Brooklyn Bridge.
While the likelihood is promising that Granite Falls will receive the grant for the Pedestrian Bridge, both Slagle and Fernholz cautioned that there are a number of variables still in play and that nothing is set in stone.
The community will likely hear as to whether it was a awarded the grant in three to six months. In the meantime, the city will continue to seek other funding sources, Lavin said. Meanwhile, plans and specifications for the bridge rehab work will continue so that when funding is available, the rehab work can proceed as quickly as possible.
