Both houses of Congress now have passed a 21-billion dollar funding bill for water projects around the country. 10-million of that will go toward an ambitious proposal to completely rebuild Nashville’s riverfront.

Project director Chris Koster says it could be two years before that money makes it all the way downstream to Metro¬. Barring a presidential veto, the Army Corps of Engineers will receive the money and study the proposal extensively before spending a dime.

“The Corps probably would not likely spend their money on building a playground, for instance, but the ground work on that site that we would need to do to work on the river bank is certainly within the Corps’ mission.”

The Corps of Engineers has worked closely with Metro on the riverfront redevelopment proposal and has a say in any construction on the state’s waterways.

The city isn’t waiting on federal money to start construction. Koster says the 8-million dollars that was put in Metro’s capital budget soon will be transferred to the parks department to begin work on the first phase – which is budgeted at 40 million dollars. Hargreaves and Associates – the consulting firm working on the riverfront – is in town this week to figure out what specific projects to move ahead with first.

Koster says that could include a river boardwalk, a pier at the end of Broadway or an artificial beach on the East Bank – among others. Whatever comes first, Koster wants it to offer immediate access to the river and be done start to finish with the current funding. That way if the Metro Council doesn’t approve more money next year the city won’t be left with an incomplete construction project littering the riverbank.