Athene Pedestrian Bridge at Raccoon River Park

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West Des Moines is an active community, with nearly 90% of its residents using the City’s parks and trails. In searching for ways to meet this demand with a growing population, the City partnered with Shive-Hattery to build the Athene Pedestrian Bridge. The project involved creating a pedestrian connection across the Raccoon River to link Raccoon River Park on the north side and Walnut Woods State Park on the south. This pedestrian bridge link was also the next step in the overall goal of connecting West Des Moines to the Great Western Trail system.

The project includes significant aesthetic enhancements centered on connecting to nature. Three key areas of the project highlight this theme. The first is a plaza on the north end, with limestone benches and a donor wall that uses different metals to evoke trees and leaves. In the middle of the pedestrian bridge, an iconic metal tree canopy that is visible from both sides of the river offers a shaded respite for travelers. The switch to modified ash wood flooring in this spot adds to the nature theme while being easy to maintain. Gateway features marking the Walnut Woods park entry carry the nature theme to the southern end of the trail.

The steel truss pedestrian bridge is 620 linear feet long with a concrete deck. On the south end, an elevated ramp was designed in order to use a smaller footprint and lessen the impact on mature trees in the heavily wooded Walnut Woods park. With the connection to the bridge on the north end in a more open area, an earthen berm ramp was designed to save costs.

While improvements were made to parts of the existing trails in the parks, areas like the granular trail around Heron Lake in Raccoon River Park – used by dog walkers and runners – were kept apart from the project to keep heavy bike traffic separated from slower pedestrian users. Instead, a new paved trail was created that follows the Raccoon River Park soccer fields, winds through the trees and meets up with the granular trail in the woods. On the Walnut Woods State Park side, the trail connects to soft-surface walking trails, taking the path of one of the trails that wraps around the Hidden Valley Soccer Complex and ends at Walnut Woods Drive.

Shive-Hattery’s One Firm approach allowed the City of West Des Moines to utilize experts in multiple disciplines across several offices to guide the City through its decision-making process. The Raccoon River Pedestrian Bridge project was completed in late 2024.