LOWELL — Work is finally underway to repair the Riverwalk that was damaged March 1 when a large area of the uppermost brick façade of the Mass Mills IV project crashed at least 30 feet onto the walkway located between Boott Mills and Lowell Memorial Auditorium. No injuries were reported.

Department of Planning and Development Director/Assistant City Manager Yovani Baez-Rose told the April 30 meeting of the City Council that cleanup work had been delayed due to safety concerns for personnel to be on the Riverwalk given questions about the stability of the remaining walls of the Mass Mills Power Building.

“They’ve had an assessment of the remaining parapet that didn’t fall,” she said. “They’ve been doing a closer analysis on some sections of the walls that are looking like they’re bulging a little. Right now, they’re still determining that.”

Baez-Rose said representatives from Mullins Management Company, the owners of the property, have been in constant communication with the city since the time of the collapse. The company recently received more than $146,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to renovate the two properties on site into a combined 82 units of affordable rental housing.

“At the direction of the city’s Building Commissioner, David Fuller, Mullins assessed the building and have been working with a contractor to find a resolution to secure the building,” Baez-Rose said in her motion response to Councilor Erik Gitschier’s request for a status update. “Before a plan could be created, Mullins needed to assess the building condition and identify potential solutions.”

An onsite visit by a reporter on Friday to an area overlooking the cordoned-off section shows that the immense pile of bricks has been removed and replaced by plastic sheeting, but bricks remain in the Merrimack River between the building and the walkway. The protective building netting appears to have been removed as well.

Once work on the project is started, it is expected to take up to four months to complete, which will be well after the summer and festival season. Lowell’s storied Folk Festival returns July 26-28.

The Mass Mills project falls within the Lowell National Historical Park and Preservation District, and there are permitting requirements from the city and historic stakeholders such as the U.S. Department of the Interior. Both buildings were constructed in the early 1900s, and have been vacant for an extended period of time.

Mullins presented a plan to the building department and will begin the process of securing all necessary permits. The plan includes the removal of the remaining parapet, shoring up of the existing roof and the installation of a heavy-duty mesh system along the entire Merrimack River-facing side of the building façade.

Given the deterioration of the building, Mullins and the contractor are working with the building department to ensure the bracing proposed on the building will protect the area from future failures. In addition to the work they are doing on the building, Mullins will also be responsible for repairing and replacing lighting and portions of railing that were damaged during the collapse.

The city of Lowell, through the National Park Service, received significant funding to extend the downtown Riverwalk from its current end at the Boott Mills under the Cox Bridge, and around the Massachusetts Mills complex, to a new pedestrian bridge over the Concord River by the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, where it would then link up with the Concord River Greenway. The project started in 2020 and was recently completed, open for only two months until the March incident.

Councilor Wayne Jenness asked City Manager Tom Golden to “post updates on either end of the walkway, and maybe a link to the website that talks about the issue.”

Signage on the fences blocking access note that “Due to safety issues involving an adjacent building, the Riverwalk … is closed until further notice.”