Whatever happened to Columbia's laser art project over the river?

Remember those lasers that are supposed to be lighting up over the Congaree River every night for the next 10 years?

You might have caught a preview of them last August during the eclipse weekend.

Despite a hope of having the installation up and running nightly by the beginning of this year, it's still not quite ready — but it is making progress, the artist says.

"I'm still confident we'll get it done, and it'll be something the city can be proud of," said Chris Robinson, the creator of the "Southern Lights" laser art display.

Spanning the river between the Gervais and Blossom street bridges, "Southern Lights" is expected to light up every evening at dusk for a decade. Blue and green laser lights will be reflected by mirrors along the river and on the bridges.

But the installation has hit some technical snags.

The structures that the lasers are mounted on — EdVenture Children's Museum and a water pump station near the University of South Carolina baseball stadium — flex slightly with temperature changes, Robinson said. Those slight movements throw off the position of the lasers and affect their projection.

He and other "Southern Lights" organizers are working on solutions and hope to get the lights glowing later this year.

The $120,000 project is being paid for with a mixture of public and private funds.

Robinson has completed dozens of large-scale art installations in his career, most notably installations on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and in Columbia, his light installation at the celebration of the opening of the S.C. State Museum in 1989 and for the Governor’s Carolighting at the S.C. State House in 1992.

He's also part of a team of artists and academics who assembled a tiny collection of art, music, writing, dance, technology and history, known as the "Moon Ark," that will be sent to the moon aboard a private moon lander.

This story was originally published March 15, 2018 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Whatever happened to Columbia's laser art project over the river?."