The following is written by Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow:

On Monday night, the City Council gave the designers of the Bridge Street bridge further direction as they continue to hone in on a design.  There’s the obvious goal: a sturdy structure that’s realigned better to the adjacent streets with two wider lanes of traffic, two bicycle lanes and pedestrian sidewalks.  There are other goals too: build something that remains special to the community, better connect the Cannery side  of town to the Downtown side, encourage more pedestrians to cross and enjoy the bridge, make sure people using the bridge get to enjoy the river and natural beauty around them.

A few months ago, the Council felt the best fit for these goals was a bridge with nothing decorative going up and over the top.  However, they still wanted to see something more than basically your standard “overpass” look.  At this week’s meeting, designer Tanja Wilcox offered more options for lighting, railing and artwork.  The Council chose the following:

– 42″ high railing instead of 54″ high, which aids viewing of the river for pedestrians but requires bicyclists to either use the bike lane or walk bikes across the bridge.

– Use concrete railing on the approach and then metal railing over the river itself, similar to what is on the current bridge railing. Choose a standard style of metal railing instead of a custom designed railing.

– Explore adding a bronze top to the railing, perhaps in a wave pattern to encourage kids (of all ages) to run their hands along the metal as they cross the bridge.

– Explore some sort of festive lighting but don’t compete against the clean lines of the overall bridge design.    – Continue to explore a portal piece of artwork as you approach the bridge itself, but incorporate ideas from the Sumner Arts Commission for something more in line with Sumner and the industrial feel of this bridge.

– Include a sound system.

– Explore a small plaza on the northwest side of the bridge (where a billboard is right now) to somehow commemorate the current, historic bridge.

As you can see, there’s no “final” design yet.  This feedback goes to the bridge designers to give them more focus in where they spend their time and talent.  In the coming months, we’ll be excited to see what they design that is just for Sumner and gives us a bridge that fills the rather large footprint of the role our current bridge holds in our community.