More than a month after Southport residents gave him the green light to begin work, Skip Rideout said the extra time has paid off for the Pratts Island Bridge.

Rideout, who has been overseeing the bridge work, said work is essentially on hold until October 16 when the water is turned off on the island.

“Right now, we're in the waiting stage,” he said. “We can't close the bridge until the water is turned off.”

The bridge, which connects Pratts Island to Southport, has been tabbed for repair for several years. Southport voters had earmarked $200,000 to repair the wooden bridge.

Initial plans called for a cement bridge to span the water, but Paul Coulombe, who has a house on the island, wrote in a January email that he would hate to lose the wooden bridge and donated the funds necessary to redo the wooden span.

Southport voters agreed August 8 to allow Rideout to make temporary closures to the bridge in order to get ahead.

The project has whirred along according to plan, Rideout said.

“We started with some of the preliminary work a few weeks ago,” he said. “We've had some abutment work and a lot of the granite work is done.”

After October 16, the bridge will remain closed to cars; but, because a good amount of work has been done, the finish line is closer, Rideout said.

“We had a third of pilings driven in two weeks ago,” he said. “I'd say we're a week ahead of schedule.”

Because the project had a head start Rideout said the finish date has been moved up, as well.

“We're still hoping to have it all done by Thanksgiving,” he said.

Ben Bulkeley can be reached at 207-633-4620 or bbulkeley@boothbayregister.com. Follow him on Twitter: @BBRegisterBen.