By JONAH LOSSIAH
One Feather Staff
A project to bring a new pedestrian bridge and main sewer line to downtown Cherokee made significant progress this week.
The entire crew for Owle Construction was on site for the bridge setting on Tuesday, Feb. 22. Workers had the brace the 90,000-pound bridge from swinging during the early stages. (JONAH LOSSIAH/One Feather photos)
Three cranes and the entire workforce for Owle Construction were on site to set the 90,000-pound bridge in place on Tuesday, Feb. 22. According to EBCI Project Management, the primary purpose of this bridge is to implement a sewer pipe across the Oconaluftee. Ken Green, lead engineer with Project Management, said that the project is operating on a $900,000 budget.
“Eventually, this sewer line will handle all the wastewater from the head of Big Cove, all the way down to the school, then down all this side of the river on Acquoni Road and come into a pump station here in downtown,” said Green.
The current sewer line has been operating on a knife’s edge, according to Green and others involved. The initial pipeline was held up by a suspension bridge that fell into the river after the cable was cut. Green said that it has been a risky operation since 2013, and that they have been trying to get this solution sorted for years.
“When we get a big, bad flash flood, the water would come up and hit the bottom of that suspension bridge down there. Of course, it’s tied together with log chains, has been for several years. It’s just been a real big concern. If that broke loose, then that wastewater would be going into the river until we could get it fixed again. This will get the whole line up and out of the 100-year floodplain and make it so we don’t have to worry about those kinds of concerns again,” said Green.
Ethan Arch, manager of Cherokee Water & Sewer, said it’s the type of problem that keeps him up at night.
“For us, it’d been a big headache for all these years… I’m just glad [the new system] is coming in. Every time it rains, we’re crossing our fingers. We’ve had water going over the last cross like five times. Floodwaters just go up and over it,” said Arch.
Arch said that they have had to remove tree limbs and logs that have gotten stuck on the pipeline. He said that it is a structural and health hazard.
This worker was the first person to cross the bridge once it had been set on both sides.
The pair of Arch and Green said there are plenty of stories from community members that used to cross the old suspension bridge before it fell. They said that type of action is extremely dangerous and they’re thankful it won’t be an issue for this new pipeline.
Green said that his team heavily considered the versatility of a pedestrian bridge as opposed to other options that may have been cheaper.
“We could build a pipe truss bridge and it would’ve been half the size of this and maybe half or two-thirds of the money. But then you’d have a pipe bridge across the river again and the local community would see no benefit,” said Green.
“We spent a little bit more money on a pedestrian bridge. But at least the folks can come here, the kids can play in the fountain and can go out and get over the river. At this point, it’ll go across the river to some decking and stop over there. But eventually, maybe there’ll be greenway trails down River Road and fisherman access and those kinds of things. It just brings a little more enhancement to the downtown area,” said Green.
The bridge gives the Tribe options. It also cloaks the pipeline instead of accentuating it. Chris Greene, manager of Project Management, said that they would be open to future projects on River Road but getting the sewer line established was the highest priority.
“We’re going to see if there’s anything we can do on the other side, for sure. At this time, there’s no solidified plans to do anything over there. But there’s definitely ideas. At some point, what we’re doing is looking at redoing the greenways around Cherokee in general and having all that pedestrian sidewalk around that horseshoe area, it would be nice to have all that tied in,” said Greene.
The bridge is now in place, and they can begin work on affixing the sewer line over the next two months.
Ken Green said that this project was ready for bidding in 2018 but just about everything that could’ve gotten in the way did. He said that momentum picked up last year and they were able to assign the contract last summer. The team had to hold construction to limit the impact on tourism.
“We actually bought the bridge [last summer] because the prices were going up so drastically. We bought the bridge, paid for it, and had it delivered to the old high school. It’s been sitting there for several months waiting on the construction time,” said Green.
The next two months will be focused on affixing the new sewer line and replacing the old system. Green said that they are expecting a completion date in late April to mid-May. Once that work is done, the bridge will also be open to the public.
The water park and pavilion are also on the docket in that area. Once the area is cleared there will be a push to get the fountains operational as soon as possible, but there is no timeline on completion.
