Gervais Street connector will be park's $640,000 linchpin

The city of Columbia in the next three weeks will begin building another section of the Three Rivers Greenway, officials said.

The Gervais Street Connector is the smallest portion of the linear park that eventually will stretch 13 miles on both sides of the Congaree and Saluda rivers.

Columbia, West Columbia and Cayce have completed about 7.5 miles so far.

But the $640,000, approximately two-block-long trail is a key component on the Columbia side: It will cross under the spans of the Gervais Street bridge across from the State Museum and will be the linchpin of greenway parks north and south of Gervais.

The section will include a parking lot at Gist and Senate streets and an observation deck providing a striking view of the bridge and river.

“It’s going to be gorgeous,” city parks planner Jim Lawrency said.

The link should be completed in about six months, he said.

The city also is gearing up to build three more sections:

• CanalFront, a $7 million section and the most “urban” of all the greenway sections. It will include a wide plaza along the Columbia Canal, as well as a pavilion with bathrooms, prep kitchen and meeting rooms that also will serve EdVenture Children’s Museum.

That project could be offered for bid in about 30 days, according to Steve Gantt, assistant city manager for development.

• The Esplanade, a $4 million section that will provide a wide, formal walkway on the bluff above the Columbia Canal at the former state prison site, which is being converted into the residential community CanalSide.

It, too, could be bid in 30 days, Gantt said.

• The Saluda Riverwalk, a long stretch of trails fronting Riverbanks Zoo and the Mill Race Rapids on the northeast bank of the Saluda River. It also will include a bridge over the Saluda at the I-20 exit ramp at I-126, linking the Columbia section with a short section of river walk in West Columbia.

The River Alliance is negotiating with a landowner to acquire a key piece of property, executive director Mike Dawson said.

“We hope to hear something any day,” he said.

The Gervais Street Connector would link the northern stretches of the Columbia greenway, which reaches all the way to the canal’s diversion dam, with a proposed 70-acre, $75 million riverfront park that is planned in conjunction with USC’s Innovista research campus and related waterfront district of shops, homes and offices.

“The idea is to connect all these elements,” Lawrency said.

Reach Wilkinson at (803) 771-8495.