Between February 2008 and June of 2009, I would stop along the McCullough Avenue bridge near the intersection of North St. Mary's in downtown San Antonio to see the progress on either side of the bridge. I generally took three to four pictures of each side of the bridge, starting with facing north east toward Alamo Heights. The next bridge up the river is Brooklyn Avenue where the lock system is built. The other side of the McCullough bridge faces the south west toward downtown and the next bridge down is Lexington Avenue.
As the work progressed, sometimes very slowly, I posted updates between one every several weeks and a month or so. My time line was dictated by how often I was downtown, and since I only hit my downtown office randomly, there was no set schedule. So in the end, I think this might have been a spiffier project if I had one of those mounted skycams like the news stations use so I could take pictures from the exact spot each time and at a certain time on a particular day each week, but I just don't have the budget or the viewership of KENS-5 or KSAT.
Roughly 16 months compressed into less than 12 minutes.
My River Walk Construction video with music from Strunz & Farah...UPDATED: Added proper music credits and explained what it was you are looking at.
Thursday, I had need to hit the downtown office and decided to take a few pictures of the water, green as it is, now flowing through the section of new river walk I've been following for a while. The location of my interest is at the McCullough Street Bridge near North St. Marys.
This is a little video of the water in action.
And to see all the pictures from start to finish, be sure to check out the set available on the Flickr Page.
I had to make a short trip downtown today yesterday and thought, what the heck, since they claim to be coming really close to finishing our new River Walk extension, it must be worth taking a minute or two to gander over the side of the bridge. From my vantage point at the bridge on McCullough and St Mary's, here are a few pictures.
The landscaping is coming right along with several areas full of green grass, lots of small bushes going and of course, palm trees.
I'm thinking with some good rain, things will fill in nicely. I can almost see the river boats full of fancy tourists floating by while drunk people drop cell phones and beer bottles in the water in appreciation. Good times.
Interestingly enough, there have been several stories about the art going in around the bridges - lots of sculptures and such. Under this bridge, it looks like the artist has made some sort of screens. I know I could probably do a quick search and figure out what he/she was going for, but I'm not that interested, and I'm sort of lazy that way on a Friday afternoon. In spite of not knowing what it is, it looks kinda nice.
Wanna see more? Head on over to the Flickr page to get the full River Walk Construction Experience. Perhaps that can be a new ride at Fiesta Texas next year.
In case you hadn't seen the news, San Antonio has been in a record setting drought this year but in the last two days, we have gotten a wonderful, almost steady stream of the good kind of rain that fills the aquifer and makes the grass turn green.
So today, I had to do some work at my downtown office and thought I would wander over to the River Walk near McCullough and St Mary's, to see how the sudden onset of precipitation had impacted the construction.
Well! I wasn't expecting water in the river! I know, that probably sounds goofy, but if you have been following my river walk construction updates, you know that the water along this stretch of river has been diverted into two huge pipes. Apparently, all this rain was a bit more than the pipes could handle. And look how the brown grass (which I was sure had just withered and died) is totally golf course green.
And of course, other shrubs and plants and trees (except for the palm that looks like it didn't make it) are looking good. The last picture (above, right) shows the end of the water pipe feeding back into the regular river at the Lexington Avenue Bridge. It is flowing pretty darn good! We'll see how long it takes the excess river water to be drained.
Wanna see all the pictures? Of course you do. Head over to the River Walk Construction page on Flickr and see the transformation.
You can tell there is a lot of finish work that needs to be done, but clearly, they have made progress.
I think it will be interesting to see how long it takes before someone gets liquored-up at Stacy's or Speedway on Grissom, then drives across the bridge and finds the pretty privacy fence on the other side of it. You know Albatross is just waiting for the WOAI reportage.
You can look at the pictures and see for yourself.
One part of that construction effort is the bridge that takes Timber Path out to Culebra. It sure would have been nice if it was finished in time for school. Oh well.
But, as these pictures show, progress is being made and who knows, by the Fall Festival or Winter Celebration (Thanksgiving or Christmas to you and I), maybe we will be driving over the top.
Of course, I risked leaving the cool air conditioning of my vehicle to step out into the fireball to take these pictures. 
Just imagine how those guys on top of the bridge feel.
If you weren't aware, this construction is taking place over the dry creek bed back behind the Bill Miller's and What-a-Burger located on Grissom Road at Timber Path. The idea is, because the creek floods when it rains (obviously not a problem during the drought) and blocks the flow of traffic, they are building a bridge that will allow drivers to drive right over the water. It has been a long time coming.
You can see here that they have been building up all sorts of pylons (I guess that's what you call them) so the bridge can sit atop them. For such a relatively short bridge, it sure seems like a lot. But then again, since I'll be driving over it, I think the more support the better!
These are pictures taken from the usual location, the bridge at McCullough Ave near North St. Mary's Street. Here. we are looking north of the downtown area. Notice the ground cover coming in a little more.
Looking toward downtown, you can see the palm trees are still taking root and the light poles are firmly in place. Off in the distance is the Lexington Street bridge and there is a river barge turning around (since the water pretty much stops there).
In case you had thought simply nothing was taking place on Timber Path at the intersection of Grissom - you know, between What-a-Burger and Bill Miller's - I am here to assure you that some movement has been spotted.
We have actual re-bar action showing what is probably going to be the place where the bridge connects back to actual terra firma.
Further down in the currently dry creek bed, you can see some forms where I suspect the pylons holding up the bridge will be set.
Finally, on the other side of the creek, more action.
The landscaping is coming right along with several areas full of green grass, lots of small bushes going and of course, palm trees.
I'm thinking with some good rain, things will fill in nicely. I can almost see the river boats full of fancy tourists floating by while drunk people drop cell phones and beer bottles in the water in appreciation. Good times.
Interestingly enough, there have been several stories about the art going in around the bridges - lots of sculptures and such. Under this bridge, it looks like the artist has made some sort of screens. I know I could probably do a quick search and figure out what he/she was going for, but I'm not that interested, and I'm sort of lazy that way on a Friday afternoon. In spite of not knowing what it is, it looks kinda nice. 
So, is it me, or has the work come to a screeching halt?
I love the road that goes about 50 feet, then stops. I can only assume that there is some explanation for this.
Well! I wasn't expecting water in the river! I know, that probably sounds goofy, but if you have been following my river walk construction updates, you know that the water along this stretch of river has been diverted into two huge pipes. Apparently, all this rain was a bit more than the pipes could handle. And look how the brown grass (which I was sure had just withered and died) is totally golf course green.
And of course, other shrubs and plants and trees (except for the palm that looks like it didn't make it) are looking good. The last picture (above, right) shows the end of the water pipe feeding back into the regular river at the Lexington Avenue Bridge. It is flowing pretty darn good! We'll see how long it takes the excess river water to be drained.
