The beep, beep, beep of the backup warning echoed off the walls of the building as the driver maneuvered his truck into place so the second span of the bike pedestrian bridge over the South Platte River at Dartmouth Avenue could be lifted into place.

The April 8 operation lifting the two 24,000-pound spans is another improvement to the Mary Carter Greenway, the predominately off-street bike path that runs from Chatfield Reservoir to the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River in downtown Denver.

Currently, cyclists or pedestrians who want to leave the bike path to connect with the bike path heading east under South Santa Fe Drive had to leave the path and use the walkway on the Dartmouth vehicle bridge.

Bruck McAfee, who stopped his bike and watched the operation for a few minutes, said he rides the route regularly and hates to have to use the walkway on the traffic bridge to get to the east side of the river.

“That Dartmouth bridge walkway is just too narrow when you are pushing a bike,” the Englewood man said. “The cars just whiz by and you feel like they are going to knock you into the river. I’ll love it when the bridge is done because it’ll make my bike rider much more enjoyable.”

The city has been trying to get the bridge built for almost three-years but a lack of fund held up construction.

Englewood first sought a federal grant to build the bridge. The project was approved but there was money available for it.

Then, in 2007, money was approved to design the bridge and, in late 2008, the city got word federal funds had been approved that would cover about half the $786,000 cost of the project.

There wasn’t money in the budget to match the federal funds so city officials immediately turned to other sources for funding help. The result was the South Platte Working Group included $50,000 for the project in its successful request for a $250,000 Greater Outdoor Colorado grant. The project received about $152,000 in the form of an Arapahoe County Open Space grant and the city will cover the remainder of the cost from the annual open space money Englewood receives as its portion of the dollars collected through the Arapahoe County Open Space Tax.