BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) – A $3.5 million bicycle bridge over the Winooski River has not officially opened but that’s not deterring bikers and joggers.

Luba Routsong and Brian Smith rode their mountain bikes over the new wooden-planked bridge between Burlington and Colchester and pedaled along a raised concrete trail through the Delta Park marsh.

“I love it,” Routsong said Friday morning as she and Smith turned around for the seven-mile ride back to their home near Oakledge Park in Burlington.

Barricades no longer prevent bikers, in-line skaters, joggers, power-walkers and parents pushing baby strollers from venturing across this new link between the biking networks in the two communities.

Avid cyclist Rep. George Schiavone, R-Shelburne, has visited the bridge, too, but he is less enthusiastic. “I honestly don’t think it was worth $3.5 million.”

Schiavone was party to a lawsuit in 2003 that tried to stop the bridge project after its price tag more than doubled from the original estimate of $1.4 million. The state’s share of the cost ballooned from $140,000 to $1.6 million. He and the other opponents eventually withdrew their lawsuit after officials agreed to limit the state’s share, find some savings and tap a pot of federal dollars to make up the difference.

Schiavone said he still finds the expense difficult to justify when the state needs to spend millions of dollars to repair roads and bridges.

Sam Lewis, deputy director of operations for the Agency of Transportation, listed a host of factors that pushed up the cost of the project. Although the contractor made use of piers set in the river for the railroad that once crossed there, he had to increase their height to meet federal requirements for 18 feet of clearance under the bridge for boating traffic.

On the Colchester side, the path leading to the bridge had to be elevated on pilings over 1,700 feet of wetland, Lewis said. “Delta Park is a very fragile, ecological resource,” he said.

Also, to protect the marsh, the walkway had to be fenced, Lewis said. “That allows people to go through, but not wander off,” he said.

Supporters argue the hefty investment is justified. The bridge will be an attraction that will bring people to the region and increase economic activity.

Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle, who has promoted bikeways for more than 20 years, said the new bridge is a key element in a plan to link bike trails from Burlington up through the Champlain Islands to Quebec.

An experimental bike ferry at the bridge site documented cyclists’ interest in extending their trips. Local Motion, an organization that promotes alternatives to the automobile, ran the daily ferry service for bikers for three summers and transported 65,000 people — 24,000 in the last year of the service.

AP-ES-06-19-04 1503EDT