Work on a $65 million project that includes the construction of a suspension pedestrian bridge over Memorial Parkway will begin sometime next spring, according to Shane Davis, the city’s director of urban and economic development:

Davis told the Downtown Redevelopment Authority on Tuesday the project will take about 30 months to complete. And while the spotlight is on the bridge – dubbed Skybridge – it only accounts for 20% of the project, Davis said.

“Everybody talks about the Skybridge,” he said. “It’s the very pretty shiny object.”

But the project also includes a massive channeling effort along Pinhook Creek that runs between Memorial Parkway and the Von Braun Center, transforming it from what Davis calls “an ugly ditch” into an aesthetically pleasing nine-acre linear River Walk Park similar to one in Greenville, South Carolina.

The River Walk is part of flood mitigation work that will take the flood plain out of a lot of the properties north of Clinton Avenue, Davis said.