Construction crew: First Ave skywalk too heavy to move

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - Efforts to continue the demolition for the new convention center complex were stalled in downtown Cedar Rapids Saturday.

The First Avenue skywalk still stands despite crews spending more than three hours trying to get it down in one piece.

“It's a major change to the look of downtown Cedar Rapids,” said Mark Stoffer-Hunter, who eagerly watched as construction crews tried to remove the skywalk.

But it seemed that over the past 30 years, the skywalk has packed on a few extra pounds.

“It didn't cut loose quite as fast as we wanted it to,” said Senior Project Manager Michael Toepfer. “The skybridge is much heavier than we anticipated."

So plans to move it stopped for safety reasons.

“We don't want to do anything that's not safe until we can get back to the drawing board and figure out what it's going to take to get it down we don't want to try and take it down right now,” said Toepfer.

So an empty truck left First Avenue without the skywalk. But when they do try to take it down again, eager watchers will be waiting.

“I'll probably come back,” said Liz Koeppen.