JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Workers take advantage of better weather this week to put in the third major casting of the bridge that connects Wasena Park to Smith Park.

JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Contractors work on replacing the low-water bridge that will, perhaps by May, connect Wasena Park and Smith Park.

KYLE GREEN The Roanoke Times

Wet weather and high water have delayed the construction of the bridge between Wasena and Smith parks.

The winter's cold rain and snow have delayed work on the low-water bridge between Wasena Park and Smith Park, so the completion date for the project has been pushed back from March to May.

But work continues -- also involving two other bridges -- to improve one of the most popular greenway stretches in the Roanoke region.

Luke Pugh, a Roanoke engineer and project manager, said that high water washed out the low-water bridge work four times over the past few months -- twice in December, once in January and then again with last weekend's heavy rains.

On Thursday, workers placed the final span in the bridge. There's still more work to be done on each end of the bridge.

Pugh said the bridge should be open to the public by the first week in May.

The replacement of the bridge cost about $550,000, he said, with the city contributing about $100,000 of that.

Work on two other bridges that will extend the Roanoke River Greenway is either under way or planned to begin this year:

n Workers are now drilling caissons -- concrete cylinders laced with metal rebar -- into bedrock for the bridge to connect Wasena Park and the new Vic Thomas Park, also known as the former Hannah Court trailer court. That project is projected to cost about $1 million and should be complete by September.

n The Roanoke City Council voted earlier this week to accept federal and state money and transfer state grant funding to construction of a bridge connecting the Roanoke River Greenway and the Tinker Creek Greenway in the Southeast section of the city. The price tag for that bridge is projected at $4.1 million, with bids set to go out by May.