FARGO — For decades, there's been dreams and plans on and off for a more dramatic pedestrian bridge that would better connect Fargo and Moorhead and provide access to the Red River greenway.

Some have been grandiose. In the 1970s, renowned architect Michael Graves suggested a "Heritage and Cultural Bridge" with a museum, concert hall and public television station over what is still a fairly quiet riverfront.

About 20 years ago, a group of North Dakota State University architectural students offered several proposals for some type of bridge or structure that would connect the two cities in a project called "Revisiting the Cultural Bridge."

Some of their plans were dynamic, too, with one proposing an all-glass skyway over the river and another calling for a tall major office building on each side of the Red River joined by a bridge.

Another student fed off of Graves' idea with a symphony hall of glass and light-framed steel that would span the rambunctious river.

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Nothing has happened with those plans. However, with Fargo working on further developing a Civic Plaza by City Hall and the Fargo Public Library, the idea of a pedestrian and bicycle bridge is alive.

The bridge, offered as an option by plaza designer Scott Bishop, of Quincy, Mass., would be built near City Hall and go over Second Street North and the brick floodwall to the river's greenway. It's hoped the project would also involve some type of bridge over the river to connect to the Hjemkomst Center area in downtown Moorhead, although it hasn't been discussed much publicly.

To advance the project, Fargo City Commissioners this past week unanimously approved a request for $3.4 million for federal aid in 2022 to assist with construction of the bridge through an urban grant program. The proposal estimates the city's share would be about $700,000.

Working with the North Dakota Department of Transportation and the Fargo Metropolitan Council of Governments, city transportation engineer Jeremy Gorden said there could be answers on the request by the summer.

It's one part of several major projects in the city where federal aid is being sought.

The requests approved by the City Commission also ask for three projects in the 2024 Urban Road Program.

The top priority is an interchange on 64th Avenue South in far south Fargo with Interstate 29 because of the many new developments in that area, including in Horace, N.D. The estimated cost in 2024 dollars would be about $18.25 million.

The second priority would be three new transit buses at an estimated cost of $1.25 million.

Next would be $9.6 million for reconstructing 32nd Avenue South, a busy east-west thoroughfare in south Fargo. The funding would be used for replacing the roadway from 25th Street to University Drive.

The other major request for federal aid, this one in the urban regional program in 2024, seeks $13 million to reconstruct 19th Avenue North that runs by the entrance to Hector International Airport and is a key connection to north Fargo from I-29.

When that project was discussed, commissioners asked if there was a way the project could address the problem with drifting snow on the road, often making it impassable and closed during winter storms.

Gorden said they are working on plans that would raise the street, which could prevent it from drifting in as severely during storms. It would involve rebuilding the road from I-29 to 18th Street by the western edge of the NDSU campus.

Federal aid is a key part of financing city street projects. It's now being used in the city's four-year capital improvement plan for improving Main Avenue eventually all the way from Broadway to 25th Street, constructing 64th Avenue in the Davies High School area to near Horace and finishing the expansion of 52nd Avenue to four lanes across the Sheyenne River.