Construction project well underway for new downtown Columbus riverfront apartment building

The first thing you notice when you drive or walk past the construction site between the 13th and 14th street bridges along the Chattahoochee River in downtown Columbus is the crane.

It hovers over the river and downtown in an intimidating manner.

The tower crane on the W.C. Bradley Co., construction site is 141 feet high, which if it were a building would be 13 stories and rival the height of the Columbus Government Center. But it is not just the height, it’s also the massive arm that draws your attention.

The jib — the construction term for the arm — is 244 long and has been situated where it can cover the entire 2.3 acre construction site.

Bradley Company Real Estate Division President and Chief Operating Officer Pace Halter said the crane occupies what will be a popular place when the apartments constructed and rented.

“It’s right where the pool will go,” Halter said late last week during a tour of the site, which went under construction in June.

But for now, it is a critical component in the construction process that started about 60 days ago and is scheduled continue into the early part of 2019.

The Bradley Company and its principle contractor, Brasfield & Gorrie, a Birmingham, Ala.,-based company with a Columbus office, made the decision the crane would make the construction process move at a quicker pace.

“It has a 360-degree reach and can get anywhere on the site,” Halter said. “After a long discussion, we decided we needed the tower crane.”

The complete coverage of the job site is the reason it was brought to Columbus, said Brasfield & Gorrie Vice President and Division Manager of the Columbus Region Wes Kelley.

“It is the most effective and efficient way to do this job,” Kelley said.

It can lift up to 20 tons close to the base and about 3 tons toward the end of the arm, Kelley said.

As concrete walls are being poured for the substructure that will be an underground parking deck, the tower crane is being used to move the concrete forms into place, Kelley said.

Once that work is done, it will not move for probably a year, Kelley said.

“The building will be built around it, then we will take it out after we get most of the structure up,” Kelley said.

The building will have more than 300 parking spaces on the bottom floors, along with retail space.

The crane is the most visible piece of construction equipment on the site where the Bradley Company is building a $52 million apartment and mixed-use building. The Rapids at Riverfront Place is the first piece of a multi-phase development on nearly 7.5 acres of prime Columbus real estate. The initial phase, which will include a park open to public use, will occupy fewer than 2.5 acres of the tract the company acquired in 2003. There will be 226 apartments — the first of which could be available late next year — in the 414,000-square foot mixed-use building, in addition to one restaurant and retail space.

There are two smaller mobile cranes on the site, including three drilling rigs. There are 225 caissons being drilled on the site for the structure’s foundation, Kelley said.

Those caissons average about 15 feet deep and some are as deep as 25 feet.

“They are drilling until they hit bedrock,” Kelley said.

The holes have to be inspected before they are filled with concrete, Kelley said. A construction worker will be lowered into the holes, which range in diameter from 30 to 46 inches and make sure the bedrock is suitable for the caisson to be poured, Kelley said.

Halter assumed his leadership role in the Bradley Company about the time construction on the project began. He is replacing Real Estate Division President Mat Swift, who is retiring in October after more than three decades in his role. Halter had worked with the Bradley Company as a consultant on the Riverfront Place project for two years before joining the Columbus company.

Despite the summer rains, Halter said, the project is a little ahead of schedule.

“We have been fortunate,” he said. “The rains have come later in the day when the work had stopped or it has been such that we can work through it.”