OGDEN — For months, a sky bridge has majestically spanned Washington Boulevard in the heart of Ogden's downtown, leading from the modern Weber Center building to . . . nowhere.
The demolition of the Ogden City Mall, now in its final stages, has left the west end of the sky bridge alone and lonely, bereft of connection to anything but air.
"It's right outside my office," Weber County Commissioner Camille Cain said. "I hate looking at it."
The bridge would have been demolished months ago along with the mall but for a long-standing and occasionally acrimonious dispute between Weber County and Ogden city over demolition costs, with the private Woodbury Corp. thrown in for good measure. The city has no ownership in the bridge, but the county said it should pay its fair share to remove it since it was the city's action that made it unusable. A lawsuit was filed, officials argued, made up, then argued again, all the while leaving the bridge forlorn, a monument to aborted ambitions.
The once-thriving mall had been moribund for several years before meeting its final end.
Now the impasse is broken. Cain and her fellow commissioners were scheduled to approve an agreement Tuesday whereby the city and county split the cost of demolition down the middle. The dismantled-then-remantled bridge can then begin a new, useful life as a walking bridge over the Ogden River at Fort Buenaventura.
"It's going to be nice to take something that has been torn apart and build something with it," Cain said. "There won't be any room for finger pointing. We're trying to get away from that."
Demolition costs will likely be between $50,000 and $100,000, plus whatever it costs to repair the Weber Center where the bridge connects to it, and the sidewalk, where the bridge supports are.
While the county and city have finally come together, a dispute is continuing between Woodbury and the city over the mortgage on a building connected to the mall.
Good thing the bridge dispute has been settled, though, according to Ogden Community and Economic Development head Stuart Reid — two weeks more and it would have been a real problem.
"We had to get it done and move on the with project," he said. "This would have become an issue very soon."
Mall — and bridge — demolition should finish by the end of March. The city will then choose a developer for the two-block property's new mixed-use development by April. The development should be under construction by this time next year.
The city has demolished several hundred parking spaces along with the mall, many of which were used for the county's Eccles Conference Center across the street. As part of the settlement, the city has agreed to provide 300 free parking spaces in the remaining parking.
"(The dispute) has at times been acrimonious, but we've finally worked through it," said Ogden's chief administrative officer Nate Pierce. "This brings peace to our community."
E-MAIL: aedwards@desnews.com