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Fort Benning Gateway

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The Fort Benning Gateway in Columbus, Ga., was designed to honor the men and women serving at one of the largest military facilities in the nation, including members of the infantry, who have called Fort Benning their home since 1940, as well as the U.S. Army Armor School, which has been located at the base since 2010.

The project sits at the entrance to the base and the design draws extensively from military thematic elements, including replicas of famous statues. Honoring the infantry is an 8-ft-tall bronze replica of the “Follow Me” statue—depicting Iron Mike charging forward.

Also standing 8 ft tall, the 10,000-lb replica of Frederick Remington’s “Trooper of the Plains” salutes the U.S. Army Armor School. Sculpted out of bronze in Colorado, both statues were placed atop 50-ft-tall precast towers comprised of four columns and precast concrete banding.

As visitors exit Fort Benning, they are bid farewell by a pair of 8-ft-tall bald eagles, also sculpted of bronze.

The project was constructed within the interchange of Victory Drive and Interstate 185, and included a bridge enhancement and corresponding landscaping. Architectural elements were included to hide the existing bridges while four precast towers were located at each corner of the bridge.

Construction within the 56-acre project also included two grand fountain plazas that stretch along each side of the highway. The plazas feature 20 fountains that shoot water 20 ft into the air, surrounded by 20 illuminated American flags.

Despite being the largest project ever to be constructed over a major freeway in Georgia, crews never required traffic to stop completely throughout the duration of construction. Extensive traffic and safety planning guided the project to completion without a single injury or incident to any of the project’s workers or to the thousands of motorists passing by every day.

Crews even placed four heavy precast spandrel beams while a pace car slowed traffic just enough so installers could secure the beams before traffic was released back to full speed.

Washington Harbour Fountain

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The new fountains at the Washington Harbour complex started flowing over Labor Day weekend. The renovated water feature will only flow until Oct. 1 this year to allow for construction of the ice rink in time for the winter season.

In addition to center fountain jets that can reach up to 65 feet, the new fountain design also features shows with lights and music.
According to Joshua Lynsen, a representative for the Washington Harbour, the hours are as follows:

“Fountain shows start at 5 p.m. and occur every 30 minutes until 10 p.m. Shows can also be seen throughout the day on the hour from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Shows done during the work week are done without music. Fountain shows last anywhere from five to 10 minutes and typically feature two songs.”

The fountains will run again in the spring, most likely in time for the Cherry Blossom Festival and next season they will run through mid-October. According to Lynsen,

“The fountain designs were a collaborative effort. The lower plaza renovation was done by Gensler, while Crystal Fountains designed the fountains, H2O Arts handled the programming and Southern Aquatics designed and built the infrastructure.”

In addition to the updated fountains and the incoming ice rink, the waterfront’s renovation also included updated restaurants for Tony & Joe’s and Nick’s Riverside Grill. Farmers Fishers Bakers should be coming online later this year.

Ellis Square Fountain

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Ellis Square came alive with a rainbow of colorful streams of water shooting up from its interactive fountain.

Construction supervisors Wednesday night began tests on the fountain, which brings them another step closer to finishing an almost four-year project that returns one of the city’s first squares to public use.

The fountain, situated close to the City Market side of the square, consists of 34 water jets and lights embedded in a concrete plaza.

Computers control the lights, which can be set on one color – say, green for St. Patrick’s Day – or a dazzling array of hues.

“Those lights will make up to 16 million colors, that’s what they tell me,” said Brad Riner of Dabbs-Williams General Contractors of Statesboro. “(They) can do any color in the color spectrum.”

The water jets work in unison or independently to shoot 10-foot sprays, create balls of water or just burble a few inches from the ground. Water and lights also can be programmed to music.

“This is a true interactive fountain,” said Dan Smirl, owner of DMS Construction of Savannah and construction manager for the Ellis Square project. “It’s a focal point, it really is. I can’t wait to see it when the little kids get down in the water.”

The fountain cost $440,000, almost $100,000 less than originally projected, Smirl said.

Some concrete work, final walkways and laying of sod are the last jobs left on the Ellis project. Freezing weather in recent weeks has delayed concrete work, but the project is on target for completion by the end of the month.

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