The state plans to combine elements of its original plan for the South Bristol bridge with elements of an alternative and develop a new design.
Department of Transportation spokesman Ted Talbot said work is in progress on a “third concept that incorporates the best of both designs.”
“We’re trying to make it more low-profile” than the original design, he said.
Dave Andrews, a South Bristol resident and advocate for the alternative design, met with the South Bristol Board of Selectmen Feb. 28 to discuss the bridge.
Andrews said the DOT likes the appearance of the alternative design, by award-winning Boston bridge architect Miguel Rosales.
“They’ve now abandoned, at least conceptually – because they still have to do the numbers – the thing with the big counterweights overhead,” Andrews said. “I think they understand that this does, indeed, look better.”
The DOT does not want the new bridge to operate on a hydraulics system, like the Rosales bridge, and is thinking about how to use counterweights without a large overhead structure, Andrews said.
Talbot, the DOT spokesman, confirmed the department wants to stay away from hydraulics.
Andrews said he and others continue to advocate for a sidewalk on one side of the bridge with a barrier to protect pedestrians, similar to the existing walkway on the 80-year-old swing bridge.
A barrier “is not at all expensive in the great scheme of things,” Andrews said.
Andrews said the DOT currently plans for shoulders without a barrier or sidewalk on either side, but Talbot said the department is considering multiple options.
The selectmen, at Andrews’ request, drafted a letter to DOT project manager Steve Bodge in support of a “designated walkway” on the bridge.
The original plan by the DOT drew criticism from a group of property owners who said the appearance and especially the size of the bridge would alter the character of the village and damage the local economy.
The group started a petition and created a website to call for a different design. Eventually, they commissioned the Boston firm Rosales + Partners Inc. to design an alternative bridge, which it presented to the DOT in January.
