The pedestrian bridge over Interstate-25 that connects the Highland area with Lower Downtown came in more than $1.5 million over budget.
The extra expense will cost Denver an additional $912,000, nearly 120 percent of the $765,429 the city expected to pay, city engineer Leslie Thomas said.
Public works officials said the price of construction materials, such as concrete and iron, went up more than expected because of Hurricane Katrina and caused most of the overrun.
In all, construction costs for the bridge went over budget by my more than 50 percent, from $3.1 million to nearly $4.7 million.
But the tab for the bridge is spread among several agencies including a $1.8 million grant from the federal government, $800,000 from the Regional Transportation District and more than $378,000 from the state, department of Public Works spokeswoman Revekka Balancier said.
Denver City Council on Monday gave initial approval to change the inter-governmental agreement to reflect the change in costs.
The opened to pedestrians in January as an extension to the 16th Street Mall. The construction overage has already been paid for.
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-954-1657 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
