Boothbay Harbor selectmen and Town Manager Tom Woodin, as well as Barney Baker, president of Baker Design Consultants in Freeport and meeting attendees, discussed details and a possible timeframe for a temporary fix to the footbridge, at Monday’s selectmen’s meeting.

A temporary repair would make the footbridge usable until permanent repairs are completed by summer 2017, with an understanding that people remember that a strict weight limit would be enforced, said Baker. His firm has been the acting consultant for the project, after significant rot was found in joists under the footbridge’s swing span and the bridge was closed to traffic. Baker presented photographs of the damage at the meeting.

He reported that he and another Baker consultant had walked from end to end of the footbridge, one on the span, and one in waders in low water. “The piles supporting the bridge are in good shape,” Baker said, adding that repairs to them, the bracings, and the swing span date back to the 1970s. Since then the deck has been replaced.

But Baker added that the consultants discovered other structural issues during the inspection. “The bridge is built on rock. The pilings were driven into shallow ground, and there isn’t much stability there. The only thing keeping it from falling is the bracing and it’s in tough shape. In 1978, a storm did a lot of damage. Now, bridge or wave action could literally float it away during a 100-year storm event.” Baker said that the way decking was replaced also presents weight-bearing issues. “A weight of 90 pounds per square foot is normal. Right now, the bridge can safely hold 50 pounds per square foot. A heavy snowfall could generate that. We need to limit crowds on the bridge until we get it fixed.”

“So we’re talking about the whole bridge, not just the swing span,” Selectmen’s Chairman Denise Griffin asked.

“Yes,” said Baker. He added that a temporary fix to the swing span could shore up the bridge. “It would involve timber beams and spanning 38 feet on both sides of the deck, bolting down the beams, and picking up the beams underneath.”

Griffin asked Baker, “What is the timing on this?”

“We need a month’s lead time.”

Several people wondered if temporary repairs could be made by the Nov. 18 start of the Festival of Lights.

Baker said, “We could use temporary bracing to get the bridge up and running, quickly. We could get the project out to a local contractor.”

“How will we pay for it?” asked Griffin.

“We have surplus undesignated funds we could use for the project,” Woodin said, adding, “I’m not as worried about the financial issues as I am about the expectations that it will be done in a month. There are ordinances to consider on a municipal project.”

“In an emergency, do we put projects out to bid?” Griffin asked.

“Yes,” said Woodin.

Vice Chairman Russell Hoffman asked Baker, “Can we have a bid package for the temporary fix by the end of the week?” When Baker answered that it was “doable,” Woodin said the town could get them out online or in print.

But he cautioned that several factors would have to come together to make the timeframe work. “It’s a tall order, he said. “The repair work is tide-dependent. The bids need to be advertised properly and materials need to be available. The contractor has to be ready to go, too. We have to do it right. Public safety is the most important thing.”

The selectmen agreed to meet in emergency session when bids come in.