The number of Austin sky bridges will more than double once three projects in various stages of development are complete.

The University of Texas, Seton Healthcare Family and The Fairmont Austin each have city approval to build bridges over various Central Austin streets. Only two sky bridges otherwise exist: a pedestrian bridge atop West Fifth Street that connects Hartland Plaza and Capstar Plaza and an enclosed walkway atop Lavaca Street between two parking garages.

City Council agreed Oct. 1 to support the newest sky bridge project, a direct connection between the Austin Convention Center and The Fairmont Austin hotel. The bridge crosses Red River Street and the soon-to-be-revitalized Waller Creek in an effort to safely connect hotel guests to their events, said Doug Manchester, president of Manchester Texas Financial Group, the project’s developer.

The project had to overcome some anti-sky bridge sentiment from the city, which Manchester said preferred pedestrians remain at street level.

“I’m a big supporter of [pedestrian-friendly streets], and I think it’s a great cause. That’s what really sets us apart from a Dallas or a Houston downtown,” Manchester said. “The city really wanted to protect that and felt the sky bridge might take away from a pedestrian-friendly city.”

Pedestrian street-level safety concerns ultimately were too great for the city and other project partners to ignore, he said. Manchester worked with the Waller Creek Conservancy to create a design that will be consistent with the nonprofit’s plans to clean up the downtown waterway.

“We really wanted to enhance the creek rather than have this urban metropolitan clash with a natural aesthetic greenspace, so we came up with a bulletproof design that really enhances the overall appeal of the creek,” he said.

Sky bridge construction will begin next fall, according to Manchester, and take approximately nine months to complete. He anticipates Red River Street being closed between Third and Cesar Chavez streets during part of the installation, although it is too soon to say when such closures will occur, he said.

Manchester said Hilton Austin is contemplating a similar walkway from its hotel to the north portion of the convention center. A Hilton Austin spokesperson confirmed those efforts but could not provide any other details as planning is still in its early stages.

A climate-controlled, 100-foot-long connection between the new Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas and its parking garage will also be built over 15th Street as part of the ongoing Dell Medical School construction.

The project should have its building permits by the end of October, and construction will begin early next year and be complete by late 2016 to early 2017, said Doug Strange, senior project manager for Ascension Health, a national nonprofit health organization of which Seton is a member. Initial project approval came after a “very agitated discussion,” Strange said, between the city and Seton officials earlier this year. However, safety issues ultimately trumped aesthetic concerns, he said.

“We were concerned about the 24/7 volume of people crossing 15th Street,” Strange said. “We didn’t think internally there was really any other answer” despite considering a tunnel underneath 15th Street.

The parking garage, owned by Central Health and used by University Medical Center Brackenridge, will undergo improvements to accommodate the new sky bridge. Street closures should be limited to evening and weekend hours, Strange said, to allow crews time to install the pre-assembled two-piece bridge.

“Probably by mid-year next year the bridge actually goes up,” Strange said.

Construction has already started on the Moody Bridge, a 300-foot walkway between UT College of Communication buildings. Central foundation support has already been installed in the middle of the Dean Keeton Street median to help stabilize the new bridge, which is located near the Guadalupe Street intersection.

Safety was less of a factor when planning for this project, which has been contemplated since project plans for the Belo Center for New Media building were first conceived in 2009, said Bob Rawski, director of the UT System Office of Facilities, Planning and Construction.

“This is being done more for convenience than safety,” he said. “We’re not just doing this because we consider the street-level crossing unsafe.”

UT hired architect Miguel Rosales, a consultant for The Lawrence Group, which also helped create the Belo Center, to design the Fink truss bridge named after the architect who concocted the concept.

“This is an important gateway, and I think the city appreciated that the university was taking that into consideration,” Rawski said.

Most work on the open-air walkway will occur this winter, with completion anticipated by Feb. 26, he said. The $3.7 million project is not anticipated to cause full road closures, Rawski said.