Wasena Footbridge Set to Reopen in May After 14-Month Restoration
City confirms the pedestrian span over the Roanoke River will reopen ahead of the Go Outside Festival, a month earlier than originally projected.
The Wasena Footbridge, the slim pedestrian span that connects the Wasena neighborhood to the Roanoke River Greenway and Smith Park, will reopen in mid-May after a 14-month restoration, the city confirmed Tuesday — roughly a month ahead of its original projected reopening.
The bridge, originally built in 1939 and used by an estimated 160,000 pedestrians and cyclists a year, closed in March 2025 after a city engineering inspection found corrosion in two of its steel trusses. The project, which came in at $4.1 million — slightly under its $4.4 million budget — included full structural rehabilitation, new LED lighting, refinished wood decking, and a widened observation landing mid-span.
“The bridge isn’t just a bridge here. It is how Wasena gets to the rest of the valley on foot,” said Councilmember Stephanie Moon Reynolds, whose ward includes the neighborhood. “I have had constituents call me every month asking when it is coming back.”
Public Works Director Ian Shaw said the early reopening was possible because the winter had been mild enough to allow decking work to continue through January and February. “We typically lose six to eight weeks to weather in a project like this,” Shaw said. “This year we lost about two.”
The reopening comes a month before the Roanoke Go Outside Festival, which annually draws more than 30,000 people to River’s Edge Park and relies on the footbridge as a pedestrian artery from Wasena parking areas.
Wasena Neighborhood Forum Chair Daniella Reeves said the bridge’s absence had been felt most acutely by residents without cars. “We have seniors in Wasena who didn’t visit Smith Park once last summer because they couldn’t walk to it,” Reeves said. “That changes this month.”
A small group of residents has pushed the city to use the reopening as a moment to reconsider how the bridge is named. The current name, derived from the neighborhood, is not in dispute — but a petition that circulated last fall asked the city to consider dedicating the span to Raymond Bishop, a longtime Wasena civic leader who died in 2022. The city has not committed to a naming review but said the question would be taken up by the Public Art Commission later this year.
A reopening ceremony is tentatively scheduled for the afternoon of May 16, with remarks by Mayor Sherman Lea and a short procession across the span led by students from Wasena Elementary School.
The new mid-span observation landing, which widens the deck by about 14 feet, is expected to be an unofficial gathering point for viewing fireworks on the Fourth of July.
“We already know where people are going to stand,” Shaw said. “We’ve just made room for them.”
