A crowd too well-dressed for the outdoor setting gathered along the banks of Brays Bayou Wednesday morning to break ground on the Bill Coats Memorial Bike Bridge.

Coats, who died in May after a long battle with brain cancer, founded Trees for Houston as well as the Hermann Park Conservancy, and had long been an advocate for improving Houston's green spaces.

The bike bridge, which was conceptualized by MC²Architects and completed by Barnhart Engineering, with construction by SpawGlass, will connect cyclists on bayou trails to the heart of Hermann Park.

Ever a stickler for quality, Coats wouldn't have settled for any dinky footbridge. The modern, arched $3.6 million bridge will span more than 290 feet across Brays Bayou. Significant funding was provided by federal programs, along with 20 percent of necessary funds coming from the city of Houston.

Hermann Park Conservancy executive director Doreen Stoller remembers the moment the project began in earnest. "Bill busts in on a public works conference meeting and basically demands a suitable bridge in Hermann Park," Stoller told CultureMap. "And he said, 'I'll help you rewrite the contract to include an architect.'"

Mayor Annise Parker and others at the groundbreaking delivered emotional praise to the former lawyer and long-time civic leader and remembered his hard-headed determination and disdain for bureaucratic hold-ups. Council member Wanda Adams, director of Parks and Recreation Joe Turner and several members of the Coats family were also on hand for the ceremonies.

The Bill Coats Bike Bridge should be complete in around seven months.