BRUNSWICK – Waterfront Maine, owners of Fort Andross, have donated $15,000 to the Androscoggin Pedestrian (Swinging) Bridge Committee. The donation puts the first phase of the fund-raising effort over the $76,000 local match for federal funds to restore the bridge.

In a letter to the bridge committee, Waterfront Maine President Coleman Burke wrote, “We are suckers for projects of this type because we’ve spent 20 years trying to restore Fort Andross with its 1688 beginnings.”

The donation completes the required local match for the $302,000 federal Transportation Enhancement grant, administered through the state Department of Transportation.

The committee still plans to raise an additional $74,000 from the communities of Brunswick and Topsham for improvements to the bridge approaches on both sides and to help create a maintenance fund.

Restoration of the bridge is expected to cost at least $364,000. An engineering study determined that the main bridge cables and deck needed to be replaced and that the bridge needed other repairs. Without the repairs, the life of the bridge was estimated in 2000 to be 5 to 10 years.

For more information, call Nancy Randolph at 729-3600 or go to the Web at www.saveourbridge.org.