BELFAST – After seeing the Belfast Harbor Walk through several years of planning, residents could be forgiven for thinking the project was nothing more than a Planning Office pipe dream.

But in the two months since workers pulled back the curtain on the project — literally, cutting down a screen of arbor vitae between Belfast Common and Steamboat Landing — a major section of the walkway has gone from concept to reality in short order.

Today the Harbor Walk cuts an uninterrupted path from Thompson's Wharf through Heritage Park to Front Street.

The way is smooth enough to travel by bike with one hand on the handlebars and the other on a camera, which is what we did for the video at right. With any luck, it gives some idea of where the project stood in these last days of spring.

The heavy construction is finished on this central portion of the walkway, according City Planner Wayne Marshall, though some features like lighting and landscaping will be added later in the summer. A short segment connecting the boardwalk at the northern end to the Armistice footbridge will be delayed until late August due to revised load bearing specifications that required a switch to lumber that Marshall said has proved hard to come by.

Of the $1.6 million estimated cost of the Harbor Walk, Marshall said Belfast is likely to spend around $1.45 million. On Tuesday the City Council discussed using some of the remaining money to begin improvements on the east side of the footbridge that were originally slated for a later phase of the project.

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Ethan Andrews can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com