BIGFORK – The historic Swan River Bridge in Bigfork will be renovated allowing emergency vehicles and larger trucks to pass through.
The bridge was completed in 1912 and in 2014, concern arose over the stability of the structure and construction.
Because of the Bigfork community’s strong attachment to the bridge, Montana Department Transportation held various community meetings for design input.
MDT will design the new bridge, and Bob Vosen with the department tells us what to expect.
“The bridge is going to look to what’s there right now. I’ll be a single lane bridge. It’ll have a shared used path on one side, it’s still going to be a drive-through type structure like what everybody is used to seeing with the historic bridge in downtown Bigfork,” MDT’s Bob Vosen said.
“The only difference is going to be it’s going to be built to carry the heavier loads of today’s modern fire trucks in particular,” he added.
The current weight restriction is three tons, preventing fire trucks and large pickup trucks from using the bridge to go through town.
A construction timeline is not known, but survey crews will be on site soon.
