Columbus Council has approved spending $1.3 million to stabilize two sections of the Chattahoochee River’s banks that have collapsed along the city’s whitewater course.

A section that collapsed in March behind Chase Apartments, just north of City Mills, has been stabilized temporarily but needs permanent stabilization work, Deputy City Manager David Arrington told councilors. At another section north of that site, about 600 feet of bank has collapsed, threatening the Chattahoochee RiverWalk in that section.

To date, the city has spent about $208,000 stabilizing the section behind Chase Homes, Arrington said. But it will take another $600,000 to permanently stabilize that section and about $715,000 to address the section to the north, just beyond the 23rd Street Pavilion.

Councilor Skip Henderson asked Arrington if the change in the river from the still water of the old mill ponds to the current constant flow might have caused the damage. Arrington said it could be a minor contributing factor but not a primary cause. He pointed out that the slope failure on the Chase site began before the City Mills Dam, just downstream, was breached.

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