Commercial Street advocates are already thinking about how they’ll celebrate when the Jefferson Avenue Footbridge reopens next year. Commercial Club of Springfield, C-Street Merchants Association and the C-Street Community Improvement District will host “Bridgebash & Brainstorming, A Drop-In Party” Sunday night, July 14.
The group invites you to drop by and share ideas for the footbridge’s opening celebration and for ongoing events and programming you’d like to see for the next century. It’s also looking for ideas for the RailYards area and what types of improvements would accommodate ongoing events at the Footbridge Plaza.
The event is planned for Sunday night from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Jefferson Avenue Footbridge Pavilion, 321 E. Commercial. In case of rain or extreme heat (the temperature Sunday is expected to reach 96), the event will be held at Historic Firehouse No. 2, 101 E. Commercial.
The bridge, built in 1902, crosses 13 tracks of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail yard between Chase and Commercial. It closed in 2016 due to structural concerns. The cost to rehabilitate it is expected to be $10.8 million. That includes $8 million from the State of Missouri. The rest of the money will come from the Commercial Club and the city’s quarter-cent and eighth-cent Transportation Sales Tax.
Springfield City Council voted in late June to accept a bid by Springfield-based Branco Enterprises to renovate the bridge and add an elevator to allow those with disabilities to access it.
