A long-planned project to rehabilitate an old railroad bridge that crosses the Spokane River, in the University District, has been delayed after the city early last week received construction bids that were higher than expected.

Meantime, a developer involved in the nearby Iron Bridge Corporate Campus, at 1401 E. Trent, says he and his partners have been waiting for years for the project to move forward, and they are holding off on further development at the complex until the bridge project progresses.

The project would turn what's known as the Iron Bridge—an abandoned railroad bridge the city owns a few blocks northeast of the Spokane Falls Boulevard-Hamilton Street intersection—into a pedestrian and cyclist bridge. If rehabilitated, it would provide a new connection to the Centennial Trail. The trail passes by the west end of the bridge and then veers southwest toward Gonzaga University and downtown.

The city engineering department estimated the bridge rehabilitation would cost about $829,600. The project's apparent low bidder, however, is Max J. Kuney Co., of Spokane, with a bid of $1,042,600, which is $213,000 more than the secured funding for the project.

Funding for the bridge's rehab comes from the Washington state Recreation and Conservation Office and from some federal programs, says city spokeswoman Ann Deasy.

Based on the high bid, Deasy says, the engineering department plans to reevaluate the project and look at several options. Those options include tabling the project for now, attempting to secure the difference in funds needed to complete it based on the current bid results, or redesigning the project so that it would cost less.

The plans for the bridge, which now is fenced off on both sides of the river, include installing a new asphalt and concrete deck, adding railings, modifying the trail approaches to the structure, and making other aesthetic repairs to the structure and around it.

"We are looking at all options, but as of right now, the bridge may or may not change," Deasy says.

She adds that the engineering department likely won't make a final determination on the new direction of the project for several weeks.

While the city is taking steps toward rehabbing the bridge and opening it for public use, Kent Hull, a Spokane-based developer and co-owner of the Iron Bridge LLC, which is developing the office complex, says he's been waiting nearly 10 years for the project to be completed.

"My partners and I aren't going to invest any more money into the development if the city doesn't do the bridge," Hull says. "We have two more buildings to build at the end of the bridge, and my partners are saying that we won't build it if they city won't fix the bridge. We'd probably level the land and make a lot."

He says those two envisioned buildings would be situated on about 9 acres of vacant land in the northwest corner of the property that borders the river. The investment into the construction of those buildings would be about $25 million, he adds.

Hull says that more than a year ago, Iron Bridge LLC paid Spokane-based firm HDR Engineering Inc. to complete the engineering work needed for the bridge's rehabilitation, as well as required underwater studies. The original plan, he says, was to redo the bridge deck using wood, but that later changed to a combination of concrete and asphalt.

Hull alleges that one individual in the city's engineering department was responsible for those changes and that the decision to change the deck not only delayed the project further, but also pushed the project's cost higher.

"The city has changed the design so much," Hull says.

Hull says that Iron Bridge also invested about $250,000 in improvements to the trail that approaches the bridge on the east side of the river.

That trail eventually connects to the Ben Burr Trail, and Hull says that the Iron Bridge would provide a linkage to Ben Burr—which stretches through East Spokane on the south side of Interstate 90 roughly between Liberty and Underhill parks— and the Centennial Trail.

Hull says Iron Bridge also has offered to pay for the electricity to light the bridge and to snow plow it in the winter.

In early 2004, the Spokane City Council approved the formation of a tax increment financing district that used increased property taxes to fund infrastructure improvements in and around Iron Bridge LLC's 18-acre office park.

Hull says that agreement, however, didn't include fixing up the railroad bridge, and that the money collected from the TIF district already has been spent on other improvements to public infrastructure around the office park.

"They city hasn't contacted me to tell me what they are going to do," Hull says of the Iron Bridge project's recent developments.

"They have said they would start construction by spring, and no one has contacted me yet on if they might know how to fund the balance or cut costs somehow," he adds.