TOPSHAM

An advisory design committee is nearing a decision as to how a replacement for the Frank J. Wood Bridge between Topsham and Brunswick should look.

The Maine Department of Transportation is still reviewing and hasn’t yet decided if it will rehabilitate the 84-year-old “Green Bridge” or build a new one.

However, the advisory committee is working under the assumption that DOT will replace the bridge. Chairman Bruce Van Note said his board has only a few meetings left before passing its design requests to the state.

On Wednesday, the committee discussed park and trail connections near the bridge. It continues to wrestle with bridge width, aesthetic features such as lighting, and using texture and color to help control traffic on the bridge, and observation decks or “bumpouts.”

Also Wednesday, local residents and business owners spoke about their concerns.

Frontier Cafe owner Mike Gilroy, whose Fort Andross restaurant overlooks the bridge and river, stressed his concern about safety, and keeping the connection between the two towns that make them feel like one.

“My fear with the (new) bridge is speed, and it’s going to create two separate downtowns and just a quick need to get from one end to the other,” Gilroy said. “How do you control the speed and how do we manage the pedestrians and cyclists that want to slow down and actually pause through that?”

Gilroy said he was glad to hear the committee considering features like plaques, art and historical features.

Andy Peabody of 35 Water St. in Brunswick said he wanted the committee to consider designs that are “architectural versus just pragmatic.”

Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber Executive Director Cory King said the chamber’s board is in favor of a new bridge due largely to the longer construction time with a rehabilitation.

“You want something that fits this footprint; you want something that looks like everything around it,” King said. “Something that’s got a little style, that’s got a little bit of culture that maybe tells a little bit of our story of who this community is.”

The bridge committee meets next Nov. 9 at the Brunswick town office. There will be a meeting Thursday, Oct. 27 from 2-4 p.m. at the Topsham municipal building by federal agencies required by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 to consider the effects of the project on historic properties.

dmoore@timesrecord.com