Photo provided A new artist’s rendering of the Columbus riverfront project showing how linking up of the People Trail and the planned plaza.
Photo provided A new artist’s rendering of the Columbus riverfront project showing how linking up of the People Trail and the planned plaza.
The “Our River…Our Riverfront” project took a sizable step forward on Monday when Columbus officials enlisted a contractor to do a chunk of construction work between the bridges on Second and Third streets.

The Columbus Redevelopment Commission approved a resolution to select Milestone Contractors to do construction primarily on the east side of the bank of the East Fork White River for an amount not to exceed $11.8 million.

Milestone will stabilize and re-landscape the east side of the bank, institute a connection to the People Trail from Mill Race Park to Water Street and construct a plaza that will provide access to the river. The contractor will also fix a wash out on the west bank.

“It’s going to be much safer for folks around town to be able to use the People Trail. They’re not going to have to cross (State Road) 46 twice,” Hitchcock Design’s Randy Royer said, adding that gaining access to the river is something Columbus police and firefighters had been seeking.

The project is divided up into three parts — work to the west side and east side of the riverfront and then the removal of the deteriorating lowhead dam in the East Fork White River.

Redevelopment officials in January hired EDCO Contractors for $454,318 to provide west bank access for the eventual removal of the lowhead dam and bank stabilization, which involved the removal of trees, implementation of a construction access road and filling in a scour area, at the location of the former landfill.

That portion is already finished, allowing Milestone to begin their portion, city officials said.

Jerry Sweeten of Ecosystems Connections Institute will take out the lowhead dam, which will begin in 2026. That’s when grant funding from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will become available. Jason Larrison of consulting firm J.S. Held told the redevelopment commission that “the anticipation is that the majority of that (removal of the lowhead dam) cost will be covered by state dollars.”

In-river features — including a recreation channel, rock riffle ramp and fish habitat structures— proved too expensive two times over during bid processes last year, so redevelopment officials opted to scale the remake of the riverfront back.

The project wouldn’t have been eligible for the type of grants Sweeten is seeking with the in-river features originally included in the scope, redevelopment officials said. The grants will also likely require some sort of local match.

Sweeten came highly recommended by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, according to Larrison, who called Sweeten “the expert in Indiana when it comes to lowhead dam removal.”

Sweeten has helped remove “dozens and dozens” of dams throughout the state, Larrison said, including Edinburgh’s Thompson Mill Dam in 2024.

Overall, the project has access to about $18.9 million in approved funds, made up of $11.5 million in tax-increment-financing (TIF) funding, $5.6 million in Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative (READI) funds and $1.8 million from various funding sources including a $1.72 million Next Level Trails Grant from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, along with contributions from Duke Energy and the Columbus Park Foundation.

The portion Milestone is doing will use up READI and grant funding first, followed by just over $4 million in TIF funding.

Other expected costs for the project involve environmental mitigation and design and engineering costs, but there won’t be an additional appropriation required, Director of Redevelopment Heather Pope said.

The riverfront project has been in the works since 2016 and was estimated to cost $8.9 million in 2017. But the price has climbed due to increased construction and labor costs, as well as additional costs associated with environmental mitigation requirements imposed by state and federal regulators, city officials have said. Royer said in January that the project, with the in-water features, has essentially tripled in cost over the past eight years or so.
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